Sweet Home Improvement

Types of home improvement

Types of home improvement

While it most often refers to building projects that alter the structure of an existing home, home renovation can include improvements to lawns and gardens and outbuildings like gazebos and garages.

Home improvement projects generally have one or more of the following goals:

Beautification and added features

* Wallpapering and painting walls or installing wood panelling.
* Adding new flooring such as carpets, tiling, linoleum, wood flooring, or solid hardwood flooring.
* Upgrading cabinets, fixtures, and sinks in the kitchen and bathroom.
* Replacing siding and windows
* Improving the backyard with sliding doors, wooden patio decks, patio gardens, jacuzzis, swimming pools, and fencing.

Comfort

* Upgrading heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC)
* Increasing the capacity of plumbing and electrical systems.
* Waterproofing basements.
* Soundproofing rooms, especially bedrooms and baths.

Maintenance and repair

Maintenance projects can include:

* Roof tear-off and replacement.
* Concrete and masonry repairs to the foundation and chimney.
* Repairing plumbing and electrical systems.

Additional space

Additional living space may be added by:

* Turning marginal areas into livable spaces such as turning basements into recrooms, home theaters, or home offices — or attics into spare bedrooms.
* Extending one’s house with rooms added to the side of one’s home or, sometimes, extra levels to the original roof.

Saving energy

Homeowners may reduce utility costs with:

* Energy-efficient insulation, windows, and lighting.
* Renewable energy with biomass pellet stoves, wood-burning stoves, solar panels, wind turbines, Programmable thermostats,[1] and geothermal exchange heat pumps (see autonomous building)

Safety and preparedness

Emergency preparedness safety measures such as:

* Home fire and burglar alarm systems.
* Fire sprinkler systems to protect homes from fires
* Security doors, windows, and shutters.
* Storm cellars as protection from tornadoes and hurricanes.
* Bomb shelters especially during the 1950s as protection from nuclear war.
* Backup generators for providing power during power outages

Home repair

Home repair

Home repair involves the diagnosis and resolution of problems in a home, and is related to home maintenance to avoid such problems. Many types of repairs are “Do it yourself” (DIY) projects, while others may be so complicated, time-consuming or risky as to suggest the assistance of a qualified handyman, property manager, contractor/builder, or other professionals. Repair is not necessarily the same as home improvement, although many improvements can result from repairs or maintenance. Often the costs of larger repairs will justify the alternative of investment in full-scale improvements. It may make just as much sense to upgrade a home system (with an improved one) as to repair it or incur ever-more-frequent and expensive maintenance for an inefficient, obsolete or dying system. For a DIY project, it is also useful to establish limits on how much time and money you’re willing to invest before deciding a repair (or list of repairs) is overwhelming and discouraging, and less likely to ever be completed.

Worn, consumed, dull, dirty, clogged

Repairs often mean simple replacement of worn or used components intended to be periodically renewed by a homeowner, such as burnt out light bulbs, worn out batteries, or overfilled vacuum cleaner bags. Another class of home repairs relates to restoring something to a useful condition, such as sharpening tools or utensils, replacing leaky faucet washers, cleaning out plumbing traps, rain gutters. Because of the required precision, specialized tools, or hazards, some of these are best left to experts such as a plumber. One emergency repair that may be necessary in this area is overflowing toilets. Most of them have a shutoff valve on a pipe beneath or behind them so that the water supply can be removed while repairs are made, either by removing a clog or repairing a broken mechanism.

Broken or damaged

Perhaps the most perplexing repairs facing a homeowner are broken or damaged things. In today’s era of built-in obsolescence for many products, it is often more convenient to replace something rather than attempt to repair it. A repairman is faced with the tasks of accurately identifying the problem, then finding the materials, supplies, tools and skills necessary to sufficiently effect the repair. Some things, such as broken windows, appliances or furniture can be carried to a repair shop, but there are many repairs that can be performed easily enough, such as patching holes in plaster and drywall, cleaning stains, repairing cracked windows and their screens, or replacing a broken electrical switch or outlet. Other repairs may have some urgency, such as a broken water pipes, broken doors, latches or windows, or a leaky roof or water tank, and this factor can certainly justify calling for professional help. A home handyman may become adept at dealing with such immediate repairs, to avoid further damage or loss, until a professional can be summoned.

Maintenance

Periodic maintenance also falls under the general class of home repairs. These are inspections, adjustments, cleanings, or replacements that should be done regularly to ensure proper functioning of all the systems in a house, and to avoid costly emergencies. Examples include annual testing and adjustment of alarm systems, central heating or cooling systems (electrodes, thermocouples, and fuel filters), replacement of water treatment components or air-handling filters, purging of heating radiators and water tanks, defrosting a freezer, vacuuming refrigerator coils, refilling dry floor-drain traps with water, cleaning out gutters, downspouts and drains, touching up worn house paint and weather seals, and cleaning accumulated creosote out of chimney flues, which may be best left to a chimney sweep.

Examples of less frequent home maintenance that should be regularly forecast and budgeted include repainting or staining outdoor wood or metal, repointing masonry, waterproofing masonry, cleaning out septic systems, replacing sacrificial electrodes in water heaters, replacing old washing machine hoses (preferably with stainless steel hoses less likely to burst and cause a flood), and other home improvements such as replacement of obsolete or aging systems with limited useful lifetimes (water heaters, wood stoves, pumps, and asphaltic or wooden roof shingles and siding.

Often on the bottom of people’s to-do list is home maintenance chores, such as landscaping, window and gutter cleaning, power washing the siding and hard-scape, etc. However, these maintenance chores should not be overlooked because they pay for themselves over time. Often, injury could occur when operating heavy machinery or when climbing on ladders or roofs around your home, so if an individual is not in the proper physical condition to accomplish these chores,then they should consult a professional. Lack maintenance will cost more due to higher costs associated with repairs or replacements to be made later. IT requires discipline and learning aptitude to repair and maintain the home in good condition, but it is a satisfying experience to perform even seemingly minor repairs.