Building Inspection Guidelines for your House Exteriors

by Askan Architect Architect With time and exposure to weather conditions, your beloved house can experience changes that can hamper its appeal, functionality and reduce its life span greatly. However, with proper maintenance and routine inspection you can improve the overall life expectancy of your house and enhance its look and appeal. Therefore, before you are hit with high repair bills and maintenance costs make sure you take some preventive steps in that direction. Here are some routine inspection guidelines for your house exteriors that will help you identify the areas that need special attention and take the right steps for their systematic maintenance and repair.

Roof: It is recommended that you examine your roof for damages at least twice a year. Most preferably the inspection should be conducted once prior to the arrival of winter and the second after the end of the colder months. A roof that is not well maintained can lead to higher costs in the long run as a result of damages due to leaks and water damage.

Roof projections: Projections like chimneys and vent pipes should be checked frequently because they make an entrance for water to enter inside the house. These roofing elements should be properly flashed and make sure that they are strong enough so as to not damage the roofing materials.

Exterior walls: Strong winds, heavy rains and scorching heat of the sun together can damage even the best quality walls and sidings. The combined effect of these can deteriorate the paint on the walls causing peeling and blistering. Cracks become common and lead to water penetration. Make sure that you renew the finishes on the exterior walls frequently to avoid severe damages.

Exterior doors and windows: Your doors and windows are one of the main reasons of energy loss because of energy loss due to air infiltration. Make sure that the doors and windows are in proper working condition. You can prevent the loss of energy through weather-stripping. You need to make sure that the weather-stripping has been installed properly and keep a check on the sources of air infiltration in the house.

Exterior ceilings: One of the major problems in exterior ceilings is that of moisture. This is a result of faulty drainage from the roof. To avoid this you need to make sure that water does not enter the house. Look for signs of peeling paint and stains of water on the ceiling.

Ask an Architect offers tips and advice on home architecture and on working with architects. The company is adept at Pre-Purchase Building Inspection in Brisbane and pest inspection services. The author of this article recommends Ask an Architect for all kinds of home renovation and home inspections.

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Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.

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