The Foundations of a Good Home

July 23, 2013

If you ask an architect or an engineer they will tell you that foundations are a headache. They underpin the whole of the building, if done incorrectly it will mean that property could be entirely unusable and they are also the mostly likely place that an unscrupulous construction firm will cut corners. The thing about bad foundation work is that its effects might go unnoticed for a long period of time unless you are watching out for the warning signs. You will definitely need an expert to help you spot them before they become irreparable. So if foundations are so important for a decent property, what are the foundations of a good home?

The unfortunate answer to finding the foundations of a good home is incredibly boring, in no way sexy and probably sounds obvious to most. To keep a home steady and free of trouble it needs constant maintenance. You have to spend a bit of your time, every day, week and month of the year doing small bits of work to ensure that your home stays trouble free. It is this type of work that is easy to set aside and ignore and let snowball into a big problem down the line and sometimes extremely serious and grave problems.

 A child’s bedroom is the perfect example of this. If you have a young child you will know how hard it is to get them to clean their room. If you stop badgering them to tidy their toys away the floor will soon be covered, nothing will be in its place and it will be a challenge to navigate from one side of the room to the other. You will ask the child to put things in their place, they will do a half-hearted job and some Saturday while they are busy playing soccer you will be on the floor tidying up a mess because things built up and built up.

This is the same situation when you are dealing with your home. When you first notice a leaking roof it can be annoying. It might be getting into the attic, and it might have damaged a few boxes of junk stored up there. You put in place a temporary patch and plan to work on it properly come better weather. That is when you start having problems. Instead of calling someone for an immediate roof inspection you put off a check-up and some maintenance, the weather didn’t improve for a better repair and the problem has spread and gotten to the whole roof. That is when you go through the phone book looking for roofing companies in Calgary who are immediately available and can do a repair on the spot, it is expensive but you have no choice if you want a livable home.

For the foundations of a good home you need your property in proper working order. It is easier to fix a small problem when it occurs, and it is much easier to fix any problem when you can plan for a proper job. Constant maintenance involves a few check-ups, a roof inspection one year, electrical inspection the next, nipping problems in the bud rather than letting everything happen at once.