When things go wrong with homes, they usually go quite dramatically wrong, hitting the bank balance – or insurance premium – very hard in the process. Short of your home burning down or suffering the effects of a hurricane or flood, there’s still a wide variety of smaller household disasters that can burst disruptively into your daily routine and your monthly finances if left unchecked. In order to avoid the very worst-case scenarios by being prepared and proactive, here are some savvy tips that’ll keep you from experiencing costly and unwelcome household disasters.
Be Wary of Your Utilities
Gas, electricity,and water together form your three main utilities, with each nestled apparently safely, out of sight and out of mind, within the walls of your home. Pipes channel water to your taps, wires feed electricity to your plugs and lights, and gas fires your oven and powers your heating. Especially in older houses with outdated systems, though, you may find that you’re sitting on a ticking time bomb when it comes to how our home is fed its resources.
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Pipes can rupture, causing household flooding; electricals can be at the mercy of power surges or disintegrating wiring in older units; and most malignant of all, gas leaks can prove disastrous. While the latter can be mitigated through a gas sensor, you’d do well to inspect those areas of your home that you have access to, most especially your boiler, your fuse box, and the piping that’s exposed under sinks, in order to check for any damage or wear and tear that could one day lead to something disastrous. Nip any faults you find in the bud by calling in professionals to help you rectify the situation.
Get Proper Security
When it comes to burglaries and break-ins, it doesn’t matter what’s taken or damaged; it’s usually simply the idea of your home not being your fortress that causes the most damage in the form of anxiety and worry. To prevent against these feelings – and of course the loss of capital you’d likely suffer as the result of a break-in – it’s a savvy idea to bolster your home security systems so that you and your family have the peace of mind that you’re as safe as possible while inside the four walls of your property.
There’s a sliding scale for home security solutions that range from simple alarm systems and a change of locks to the full kitted-out safe room, bunker and pantry full of long-life foods in case of an existential disaster. In the middle ground, compare options like fitting security cameras or a movement-sensitive light, a prominent flashing alarm system, bars on windows and doors, or, if peace of mind is your number one priority, you could establish links with a home security firm who’s on the end of the phone 24/7 in case of home intruders, and will rush to the scene if any alarm is raised.
Stop House Fire Risks
The vast majority of house fires are preventable, and you should make positive behaviors your number one priority in order to prevent your own home-grown flammable disaster so that you never have to suffer the utter disaster of losing part or the whole of your home to an inferno of your own making. New builds are constructed with fire safety one of the top priorities, using materials that are less flammable and bearing in mind fire exits, but there’s still a level of personal responsibility to preventing fires.
Exposed flames in the form of candles and incense should always stand alone with no chance of a breeze blowing flammable fabrics or paper into their flame. It goes without saying that they should be blown out before going to bed. Smoking irresponsibly indoors leads to a worrying number of house fires each year, while errors such as leaving on a hob or the oven can lead to rapidly-expanding fires with a good deal of smoke along with them. Even overloaded extension cables from plug sockets can cause fires. Take every step to prevent the fire disaster from touching your home.
Call in Professionals
When it comes to the overall structural integrity of your home, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to do the summing up on your own. Instead, you can look to professional firms who deliver Exceptional Building Inspections that thoroughly and methodically go through each potential flaw in your home and will direct you to any areas in which you could save yourself the costly disasters you may be due by preemptively making repairs on your home. The result is a weight off your mind and a home that’s well-positioned to run disaster free for many years.
Other than the building inspectors, you’ll also have the usual raft of tradesmen and surveyors to come in to fix smaller nagging problems you’ve always been aware of yet have never had the gumption or wherewithal to actually deal with. You know what they are – a faulty tap that never stops running, a socket that sparks dramatically every time you plug in a charger, or a whistling gap in the spare bedroom window – these minor repairs will almost always sit you in better stead to avoid more costly disasters down the line.
Update as you Renovate
While this tip isn’t necessarily concerned with protection from household disasters, it will save you money and make your home a more attractive prospect on the property market. Whenever you can, making some improvements to, for instance, your home’s windows and insulation – getting double glazing and the best modern insulation solutions – will save you a terrific amount in energy bills while also replacing worn-out and potentially dangerous old materials.
The best opportunity to perform this updating of your home is when you’re conducting home renovations that have exposed the inside of your walls so that you are not forced to rip everything up and apart twice. Having completed this task, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how much money you save on heating bills especially.
Keeping your home protected against external threats that can cost you dearly usually always goes to prevent a problem from becoming something more disastrous.
Images by Beer Singnoi – Townhouse with Private Garden by baan puripuri
