Trouble at Home?

You might think that your home is your safe haven, your ideal paradise where nothing bad can happen, and your family is safe. But that’s just not true, and unfortunately, the worst things in life often happen in the home or to the property. Big bills, serious dangers, and other terrible situations could all happen in the comfort of your home. The good news is that if you are aware of these dangers and expensive issues you can prepare for them. You can make sure that your home isn’t destroyed by problems like this. Let’s start by thinking about what I’m sure is a huge fear for most homeowners.

Break-Ins And Security

Unfortunately, break-ins and thefts have been on the rise for quite some time, particularly in countries like America. Thankfully, violent crimes are actually diminishing, and this essentially means that if someone does break in the chances are that you’re not in imminent danger. It’s far more likely that they are there to rob you rather than to hurt you or your family. Of course, that probably isn’t going to be much of a consolation when an intruder is standing in your home. Or, if you come back from a holiday one day to find that your house has been robbed. 

However, it does point to a clear way you can avoid a break in on your property. Don’t advertise that you have expensive things in the house. If you have an awesome, ultra HD TV, don’t display it in a way so that it can be seen from the outside of the house. Instead, put it in a corner away from the window. The same is true for expensive ornaments. Don’t put them on the windowsill. Instead, put them in cabinets and make sure that most of the expensive items are in rooms at the back of the house. If you do this, you won’t be tempting criminals to try and break in.

When you go away on holiday make sure that your house does look like there’s still someone there. For instance, you can get timers for your sockets. This will switch the lights on and off intermittently through the day and ensure that your home doesn’t look deserted. Better yet, get a neighbor to check in on it for you. You can even ask them to park on your driveway with one of their cars when they get in from work.

Avoid any silly mistakes like giving away information about who you are because this can help someone breaking in. For instance, you need to be careful about the name you give your wifi modem. It shouldn’t have your name on it. If they have your name, criminals can use this to trick people into thinking that they know you and have the right to be on the property.

Finally, make sure that you are setting up your home as a deterrent. For instance, these days it’s not overkill to think about using CCTV cameras on your property. That way, you can make sure that if someone is on your property, you can at least get a record of it and hopefully pick up a face. Although typically if a property has CCTV, a burglar probably isn’t going to take a chance with a break in.

Thunder And Lightning

If we’re looking at some of the most expensive issues that can occur on your property, we definitely need to think about weather damage. Bad weather can play havoc with your home and one of the best examples of this would definitely be flooding. If you live on a flood plain, you should buy flood insurance to make sure you will be able to handle expenses that might be caused by bad weather. You might also want to think about getting this type of coverage for your house, even if it’s not in an area known for flooding. The reason for this is simple. The weather is unpredictable, and it pays to be prepared.

It is worth pointing out that most insurance policies don’t cover extreme cases of bad weather. For instance, your home might be hit by lightning, and that could leave the roof severely damaged. Now, you might think that your insurance company will deal with damage like this for you. However, this could be determined to be an act of God and acts of God are hardly ever covered.

There are ways to avoid damage to your property due to storms and bad weather though. For instance, you can get a home lightning rod. That way, the lightning will, for lack of a better word, be caught and you can avoid damage to your property.

Or you might want to think about waterproofing the exterior of your home. It is possible to get protective coverings for the roof and even the brickwork of your property if you think it could be vulnerable in a case of bad weather.

Faults And Failures

Another massive expense that you might have to deal with in your home would be the replacement of a piece of equipment. For instance, you could have a boiler heating system on your property. If this needs replacing it can be an unexpected bill that will cost you thousands. You might not have that type of cash in your accounts to spend. So, you certainly want to think about avoiding the replacement altogether.

You can do this by arranging for regular inspections on the property. With regular, inspections, you should be able to make sure that if there is a problem with a piece of equipment, it can be repaired rather than replaced. Ultimately this could save you from a massive bill that you probably won’t be prepared for.

Of course, you can also save yourself some trouble from an unexpected bill by upgrading equipment before it needs replacing. Regularly modernize and improve your home and you can save yourself from a lot of heavy costs further down the road. Plenty of people do this, and it certainly pays off. It also means that if you ever decide to sell the home, you can get a higher price for it.

Bugs and Beasts

Did you know that 1 in 3 homes in LA have termite infestations? The city of dreams indeed but you shouldn’t find that stat too surprising because termites aren’t necessarily a major problem. It’s quite possible to live in a home with termites and rarely see the signs of it. However, there are other bugs that are more problematic.

Bed bugs would definitely be an example of these. If you have bed bugs, then the main problem is that they are virtually impossible to get rid of. You’ll need a pro exterminator, and even then it can take a lot of time. They also bite which means as well as being unattractive they’re harmful too. This is one of the bugs you can’t ignore.

Interestingly cockroaches are the opposite. Cockroaches might look unpleasant, but they are completely harmless and don’t damage your property at all. So really, you can have a family of roaches in your garage, and you don’t need to do anything about it.

Do you want to know the best bug to have around the place? That is undoubtedly the spider. Spiders, while receiving a bad rep for looking scary actually eat some of the more annoying smaller bugs which is useful. They also only live in houses that are clean. So, if you have spiders more than anything else, it’s a compliment to how clean you keep your home.

Old Age

Houses get old and just like humans they begin to show signs of age. The problem is that this can lead to expensive, troubling problems for the owners. For instance, your home might have structural issues, and if that’s the case, they do need to be fixed.

Otherwise, they can be damaging, and they might even mean that your property is unsafe. Repairs are expensive, and the best option is to make sure that you catch the problem early. There are lots of signs that there’s a problem with your home structure. But the classics would be doors sticking in the frames and bumps in the floors. Any issue like this should be checked out immediately to avoid further damage.

Health Troubles

Finally, you might not realize this, but your home could actually be harmful to your health. This is absolutely true, and it’s particularly common in older homes for two reasons. These are lead paint and asbestos. If your home was built during or before the eighties, there’s the possibility that both were used during the construction. Before this time, these substances were thought to be completely safe. It’s only now that we know they’ve been linked to health issues like cancer.

You can get asbestos removed from a property or lead paint destroyed. Unfortunately, this costs a lot of money, but it might be a change worth making if you find it through a proper inspection. It would be terrible to know that someone in your family developed health issues that you could have prevented.

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