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It’s important for every home owner to familiarize themselves with the exterior of their house.
A lot of times people don’t check on what’s going on outside their house. Especially on
the side that they rarely see - until there’s a problem. You can prevent a lot of problems
by walking around and taking a look at your foundation and finding out if there are weeds
or debris building up because that’s very damaging to the side of your house, especially
if you have a wood-sided house. Whether or not you have wood or not, you don’t want
the vines growing up the side - it’s very damaging for the mortar as well as for the
wood. So you’ll want to make sure all those are cut back. A lot of people will excavate
a small area around the foundation around there house and fill it with gravel so this
provides a barrier for weeds and vines and the like. Also you want to check your
mortar and you do have a brick house, and make sure that it’s intact, if you have
large gaps, that will allow the water to penetrate the wall, which is obviously not good, and
also check around the windows. You want to make sure that you don’t have rotted window
frames or large gaps. And if you do have gaps you want to make caulk that or fill it with
foam so that you can reduce the air drafts in your house. Also you want to check along
your roof line and make sure the branches and trees aren’t growing up onto your roof,
because not only will this damage your roof, but it also provides a means for animals to
get onto your roof, but possibly into your attic. So the further away the branches are
from your roofline, the better. So familiarizing yourself with what’s going on the outside
your house will prevent your repair bills in the future and save you a lot of potential
headaches.