When New Is Not for You: Home Maintenance and Repair for Your Seattle Area Home (Part 2)
You may have chosen to live in an older Seattle area home because you like older homes. Not everyone equates newer with better! And if you have a penchant for homes with an older character, you probably aren’t looking to turn your bathroom into a modern spa. But that doesn’t mean you should ignore your bathroom. You can still make it more comfortable, cost-efficient, and better looking—even if you don’t plan to gut it and rebuild it. Here are a couple of things you might want to consider.
Tile That Makes You Smile: Let’s face it, sometimes your tile makes you grimace. Especially after you’ve been through several rounds of cleaning and bleaching and scrubbing the grout and re-calking—only to have that nasty black mold reappear a short time later. You may be facing a more serious issue. Even though the surface of your shower wall may appear to be waterproof, water can get behind the tile and rot the wallboards. And not only does that look ugly, it can indicate the presence of toxic mold that can be a serious health issue. If you’ve repeatedly scrubbed and cleaned—only to have the mold reappear, you probably need to replace your wallboard with waterproof material and then re-tile. It’s the only way to eliminate what could be health-threatening mold.
Stop Flushing Your Money Down the Toilet: There are parts in toilets that simply wear out. But even when you replace those parts (like the worn out flapper), you still may be left with an older toilet that was designed to use a lot more water than current commodes (Some older toilets use as much as six gallons per flush). Newer toilets are required to use 1.6 gallons or less per flush. By replacing your old toilet with a new one, you’ll not only save money on water, but you’ll have a smaller impact on the environment. If you like the look of your older “throne” you may be able to retrofit it with a conversion kit.
Get Your Mind in the Gutter: Obviously there’s more to maintaining an older home than taking care of the bathroom. One area of home care and repair that homeowners tend to overlook is maintenance on their gutters. Gutters that aren’t properly maintained can cause some serious problems. Water that doesn’t drain away from the house can collect around the foundation and find its way into your home (And in case you hadn’t noticed, we tend to get a lot of rain in the Seattle area!). A home maintenance professional can tell you whether you’re looking at a simple fix or whether your gutters have given you all they’ve got and should be replaced. The good news is that once you replace them, they should last for 20 to 25 years.
Have questions about any of these areas? Give us a shout at (206) 824-8001. We’ll be happy to talk you through your questions and provide you with helpful information.