{"id":3488,"date":"2018-04-30T07:51:05","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T11:51:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/?p=3488"},"modified":"2019-05-06T06:47:28","modified_gmt":"2019-05-06T10:47:28","slug":"maintenance-free-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/2018\/04\/30\/maintenance-free-homes\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintenance free homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

I talk about home maintenance quite a bit. And there is a reason. Maintaining your home is important, not just to keep you comfortable<\/a> but to also preserve your investment<\/a>. But many people loath the idea of spending their weekend checking their home\u2019s systems, replacing air filters, mowing the yard, washing the siding, cleaning appliances, ad nauseum. They are called chores for a reason. But maybe sometime in the near future we will eliminate the chores and live in maintenance free homes.<\/p>\n

Rapid technological advances<\/a> are certainly making our lives easier. We can do many things in our homes, even when we\u2019re not home! Our homes can even do things while we’re not home.\u00a0 So how about increasing the quality of our lives by reducing the time spent maintaining our homes?<\/p>\n

Maintenance free homes<\/h3>\n
\"maintenance<\/a>
Home Maintenance (infographic from sunlife.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Home design<\/a> and materials tech are leading us to a home where maintenance is minimal or non-existent. Tech innovations has brought us new materials to enhance our homes\u2019 appearance and decrease maintenance. Many of the new materials not only look good, but they are also green<\/a> which makes our homes more efficient. Many material improvements have been primarily for your home\u2019s exterior. For example, new no-maintenance or minimal maintenance materials for siding, decking and roofs are aesthetically pleasing and can last decades. However, low or no maintenance materials for your home\u2019s interior are increasing in popularity too. Examples include quartz for counters, and prefinished wood for flooring.<\/p>\n

The desire for maintenance free homes is not a new phenomenon and can be directly observed by housing choices. New home buyers<\/a> like the idea that there will be minimal maintenance for the first year. They like feeling confident that everything in the home will work as expected without spending money on service calls, or expensive emergency repairs. Condo buyers like the idea of not having to deal with exterior home maintenance, especially lawn care. Additionally, active adult communities are designed with low maintenance in mind to make living easy and increase quality of life.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, because of their design, some mechanical systems still require care. For example, experts recommend that HVAC systems be serviced twice a year. The service not only checks and tunes the system to operate efficiently, it can identify potential hazards as well. However, to help keep maintenance at a minimum, many homeowners decide to sign up for a service contract. The service contract may also schedule the maintenance for you, which can also help you with time management. Not all service contracts are the same, and due diligence is recommended before you sign any agreement.<\/p>\n

I am not dissing those homeowners who love to work on and around their homes. Don\u2019t get me wrong, there is a satisfaction from doing chores and repairs. But there are many who don\u2019t care for it. And not to mention that there are many homeowners who don’t maintain their homes, because of cost and\/or inability. A major benefit to living in maintenance free homes is reducing the value-reducing effects of deferred maintenance.<\/p>\n

Tech advances in home design and building materials have eliminated a great deal of the maintenance requirements that was necessary in the past. And although some systems in the home require regular care, newer systems increase in reliability. It\u2019s fascinating that because of maintenance free exteriors many homeowners today don\u2019t know what it\u2019s like to paint the exterior of the house every two to three years. Likewise, maybe sometime in the near future, we won\u2019t remember what it\u2019s like changing air filters.<\/p>\n

By Dan Krell
\nCopyright \u00a9 2018<\/p>\n

If you like this post, do not copy; instead please:
\nlink to the article<\/a>,
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\nor re-tweet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Protected<\/a>Disclaimer<\/a>. This article is not intended to provide nor should it be relied upon for legal and financial advice. Readers should not rely solely on the information contained herein, as it does not purport to be comprehensive or render specific advice. Readers should consult with an attorney regarding local real estate laws and customs as they vary by state and jurisdiction. Using this article without permission is a violation of copyright laws.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I talk about home maintenance quite a bit. And there is a reason. Maintaining your home is important, not just to keep you comfortable but to also preserve your investment. But many people loath the idea of spending their weekend checking their home\u2019s systems, replacing air filters, mowing the yard, washing the siding, cleaning appliances, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Maintenance free homes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[178,334,419,173,401,140,13],"tags":[887,1051,926,885,871,706,797],"class_list":["post-3488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-home-maintenance","category-home-of-the-future","category-home-owner","category-home-repairs","category-home-value","category-home-values","category-real-estate","tag-home-maintenance","tag-home-of-the-future","tag-home-owner","tag-home-repairs","tag-home-values","tag-house-values","tag-real-estate"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1VZLf-Ug","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3488"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4406,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3488\/revisions\/4406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dankrell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}