Tips for Preventative Maintenance on Your Home

Duerksen & Associates works hard to ensure that preventative maintenance is performed on all of our properties on an annual basis. From annual furnace cleaning, testing smoke detectors, and cleaning bathroom exhaust fans, it’s our responsibility to ensure that your investment property is in livable condition, and its tenants are safe. 

Under the Landlord-Tenant Act, landlords are required to meet certain health and safety standards. We must also keep plumbing, electricity, heating, and other basic amenities in working order. 

With the help of our tenants, we work hard to maintain safe, livable conditions. When you trust us with your investment property, rest assured it is our top priority to keep it in tip-top shape.

Here’s a glimpse of our preventative maintenance routine.

Our tenants are responsible for testing the smoke alarm every six months and replacing the batteries when needed. During our annual maintenance inspection, we make sure these safety devices are installed according to the manufacturer’s instructions and we test them at least once a year. Working smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors are necessary in all rental homes, so we make no exceptions about having them untampered in all of our units. 

Cleaning bathroom exhaust fans is one of the most impactful preventative maintenance items to combat mold and mildew. In the Pacific Northwest, we are always mindful of this issue. We have found that when bathroom exhaust fans are cleaned once per year, we don’t see mold issues in bathrooms. Our tenants are responsible for turning on the bathroom fan 30 minutes before and after showering, per our request, to help with ongoing efforts for moisture control.

Annual furnace cleaning and maintenance is the best way to avoid emergency calls from tenants who are without heat in the winter due to a failing furnace. During our annual furnace cleaning, we change the furnace filter to help curb this possibility. We also recommend that tenants change their furnace filter every three months if they are running their furnace daily. 

Once a year, we visit your investment property to check for soft spots on the roof, ceilings, and walls. We also look for signs of water damage around windows, showers, and toilets. And, we check beneath sinks, boilers, and hot water heaters for leaky pipes. Catching these water leaks and buildup is key to preventing dangerous mold and expensive structural damage. We ask all of our tenants to contact us immediately if they notice any leaks. 

To prevent leaks and keep our properties structurally sound, we clean and inspect the gutters and demoss the roof once per year. Leaves and other debris can clog gutters and trap water, which can lead to significant water damage through the roof, siding, windows, and even the foundation. We start this preventative maintenance in the late fall when the majority of the leaves have fallen off the trees. 

Our experience has taught us that a key ingredient for your cash flow is a product in great shape. Keeping your investment in good condition through maintenance and preventative care is our priority to keep your cash flow higher.

Click here to learn 5 Reasons Duerksen and Associates Should Manage Your Property.