Protect Your Home — and Your Investment!
 Source: CMHC site
Your house is more than the place where you live, it's your home and your most important investment. Carrying out a regular program of maintenance and repairs can help you protect that investment, and help keep your family safe and sound in every season.
In Fall, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation suggests you take a few minutes each week to perform the following simple tasks, which will help you to avoid the most common — and costly — problems before they occur. Some of these tasks include:
- Check and clean or replace your furnace filters on a monthly basis during the heating season.
- Have your furnace or heating system serviced by a qualified service company (every two years for a gas furnace and every year for an oil furnace).
- Bleed air from the hot water radiators, and turn the gas furnace pilot light on.
- Vacuum electric baseboard heaters to remove dust, remove the grilles on forced-air heating systems and vacuum inside the ducts.
- If you have a heat recovery ventilator (HRV), clean the outside air intake grill, the filters inside the unit, and the core, and pour water down the condensate drain to test it.
- Have well water tested for quality.
- Check the sump pump and line to ensure proper operation. There should be no line obstructions or visible leaks.
- If you have a septic tank, measure the sludge and scum to determine if it needs to be emptied before spring. Tanks should be pumped out at least once every three years.
- Replace window screens with storm windows, and ensure all windows, doors and skylights shut tightly, including the door between your house and garage.
- Ensure that the ground around your home slopes away from the foundation wall to prevent water from draining into the basement.
- Clean leaves from eavestroughs and downspouts to ensure proper drainage from the roof, and check chimneys for nests or other obstructions.
- Cover the outside of air conditioners, and drain and store outdoor hoses. Close the valve to the outdoor hose connection, and drain the faucet (unless it is frost proof).
- Winterize landscaping by storing outdoor furniture, preparing gardens and, if necessary, protecting young trees or bushes for winter.
Remember to hire qualified contractors to protect your home investment, it could also save your families life.
With over 50 Lenders and hundreds of low rate mortgage options, shouldn’t you talk to an Agent at “Your Durham Mortgage Solutions Team” and Mortgage Intelligence Today?
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