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The Most Important Things You Need to Do to Maintain your Hawaii Home

Older homes in Hawaii are full of memories, history, and charm, but they have unique needs when it comes to care, repairs, and maintenance.

Roofing

Keeping your your roof in good repair is crucial, because leaks can start very expensive compounding effects. When moisture is allowed to seep into your roof, an expensive roof replacement bill will follow shortly after. Tiny little cracks, roof plant growth and inadequate drainage all have to be caught early, otherwise, roofing structures become vulnerable to water damage and mold. This can affect your landscaping, health, flooring and even affect your foundation and make you vulnerable to shifting, buckling and cracks.

Have your roof checked out at least 2 times a year.Roof maintenance ensures that your home remains strong and is capable of withstanding tropical weather conditions for years to come.

Painting

Keeping your home painted, especially with a 10 year paint can preserve the wood and prevent against rot, mold, and termites.

Tenting

Speaking of termites, there is nothing more devastating to your home investment than termites. Hawaii home owners should tent their homes every 3 years. Go with a company that offers a warranty and free checks during that time period. They will come and tent again if you show any signs of termites within the contracted period. Watch for signs an stay on top of it. Termite damage is costly to treat and repair.

Outdated Plumbing and Electrical

Electrical wiring and plumbing problems are common in older homes. Before the 1960s, galvanized pipes were used and they commonly get clogged and corrode over time. They eventually need to be replaced with PVC or copper

Old wiring is also common and a nuisance: If you’ve ever lost power when running the microwave and the rice cooker at the same time, then you are familiar with the problem.

Unsafe Materials- Lead and Asbestos

If your house was built several decades ago, there’s a good chance the paint has lead and there is asbestos in the flooring, ductwork, popcorn ceilings, roofing, etc.

Bad Layouts

If you have shopped for homes in Hawaii, you have probably already noticed that the floorplans in older homes vs newer homes are very different. It is more common now to have open floorplans. Older homes have more walls and rooms, many without closets, very small bathrooms and no laundry rooms.  Finding room to grow for your ohana can be hard. Atlas Construction prides itself in coming up with solutions for even the most complicated projects.

Bad Renovation Work History

The older the Hawaii home, the more times it’s been sold.  Each person’s ideas of “improvements” aren’t always made with a disregard to the rest of the structure. Hawaii homes are commonly pieced together. You may have inherited problems you aren’t even aware of yet.

Use this handy HOW LONG STUFF LASTS guide to help you analyze your home and identify issues you need to stay on top of it, and reduce emergency and costly repairs and purchases.

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