Maintaining Your Investment Asset
Maintaining an Aged Investment Property – Part 1 : Outside
House and Building are like any other investment need maintaining.
Generally speaking houses are built to last a 100 years – and many last a lot longer…
Today we will talk about the exterior of the building and surrounding block.
However there are several keys maintenance issues you should keep in mind;
Roof – The roof is all important in that obviously you do not want it to leak or have structural issues that can then cause further problems (and cost) through leakage.
For tiled roofs check to ensure that tiles are correctly laying otherwise they can lead to leakage.
Especially after tradespeople have need to gain access to the roof , like for a Foxtel dish and that none of the tiles have been cracked.
Skewed tiles simply need to be put back in their correct position while cracked tiles can be changed if you have spares , purchased – or silicon cracks back up.
Ridge capping and corners should look linear in appearance and the cement should not be cracking and falling off too greatly .
Touching up and re-pointing can be necessary every 15 – 30 years of a building life.
Zinc Alum or Tin roofs very rarely need upkeep except if leaking where the rubber has perished for the galvanised screws and simply need replacing.
Exterior brickwork generally rarely shows significant damage but re-pointing cement between brickwork is often need for buildings in excess of 50 years of age.
Soil erosion around the base of the building is something not to take lightly – this can lead to internal and external wall cracking and compromising the pad of a concrete floor.
Wooden floored properties are more forgiving but stumps should be monitored especially for termite activity or wood rot.
Exterior wood on buildings is something that is required to maintain regularly with scraping and repainting externally probably every 5- 10 years to prevent wood damage.
Facias and gutters need to be cleaned yearly – gutters year after autumn, and as these are metal in most instances should also be re-treated for rust when repainting them on a similar timeframe.
Eaves that show signs of water damage can often be because gutters are not regularly cleaned out or there are a lot of vegetation that promotes extra moisture and condensation that can affect the cement board product and potentially lead to sagging in the event of water damage.
Trees should be trimmed about 300mm at least away from the house regularly and below the gutter line.
Those trees that are out on the front or property that may get close to power lines need to be trimmed by a licensed and insured Tree Lopper.
Those that are in constant problem may be best for cost savings to remove in total.
Do be aware though that you cannot remove any trees on the council verge as they are the property of the council. Written by Simon Backhouse, Property Consultant