Over the years I’ve seen people do some things to their homes. While they mean well, they may well be causing harm to their homes.
I saw someone one day who was power washing the exterior of his home. This is not necessarily a bad idea. But if you have the pressure turned too high, or are using a nozzle with a fine jet stream, it’s a bad idea. This person ripped through a few screens and actually cut into the cedar shake siding.
I watched someone else power washing the roof once. They didn’t realize that the power washing was actually dislodging granules from the shingles, and that he was washing years of life off the roof.
Many people like the look of mulch around the house in landscaping. My thinking is that causes two issues:
1. Mulch can emit mold spores. These spores can erupt and shoot the spores up to 10 feet high, or more. And if they land on the siding, they adhere to it. And they won’t come off. You can cause unsightly, small black dots to appear on the siding.
2. Mulch is also good for something else. I call it termite bait.
My suggestion is to use rocks of some type around the house for you landscaping. Use mulch around trees that are away from the house.
Another nice look for landscaping is small statues in the garden beds near the house. Guess what? More termite bait.
Some window screens have small holes at the bottom of the frame which are called “weep holes”. Some people think this is a way for bugs to enter the home. They are actually meant for a way for water to exit after rain comes through the screen. By plugging the homes, you allow water to gather, which can cause the window casing to rot.
On a slightly different subject, I showed a home to a buyer yesterday. I saw that the gas grill was right next to the house, under the eaves. I’m guessing this allowed the cook to grill and stay out of the rain. The other thing I saw was that the heat from the grill had melted and deformed the vinyl siding.