Home Maintenance Costs: Save Your Money

Collage: Save Money with Regular Home Maintenance and Repair
Image Credit: MS Office ClipArt: Home Improvements, Maintenance, Repairing
2012 @ wobuilt.com

"Regular maintenance and upkeep of your home should have been a priority all along ..."
~ wobuilt.com

On average, routine home maintenance costs will amount to roughly one percent to three percent of your home’s actual sale price annually. That may come as a surprise to you, but the fact is, no matter how conscientious a homeowner you are, many things in your home simply don’t last forever.

Let’s face it, in a hyper-competitive world of frenzied globalization, cost-cutting measures, planned obsolescence and “life-by-monthly-payment,” the old cliché “they don’t make ‘em like they used to,” has never been more pertinent or held greater meaning than today.

In 2008, the National Association of Home Builders in the U.S. published a Study of Life Expectancy of Home Components. Here is a partial list of the estimated life expectancy of items in your home.

• Dishwasher- Five to Twelve years
• Garbage Disposal - Five to Twelve years
• Washer - Five to Fifteen years
• Dryer – Ten to Twenty-five years
• Water Heater- Five to Fifteen years
• Electric Water Heater - Ten to Fifteen Years
• Refrigerators - Fifteen to Twenty years
• Gas Stoves - Fifteen to Twenty years
• Oven and Range – Fifteen to Twenty years
• Warm Air Furnace – Ten to Twenty-five years
• Oil Tank - Twenty years
• Central Air - Ten to Fifteen years
• Heat Pumps - Ten to Fifteen years
• Gas Chillers- Eight to Fifteen years
• Water/Steam Boiler Welded Steel- Fifteen to Thirty years
• Water/steam Boiler Cast Iron- Thirty- Fifty years
• Water Pipes- Twenty to Twenty-five years
• Septic/Sewer Pump - Five to Ten years
• Roofs, Gutters and Downspouts - Twelve to Fifteen years
• Wood Shingles - Ten to Twenty years
• Fiberglass – Fifteen to Twenty years

It should go without saying that these are rough estimates at best. There are many factors that determine the longevity of home components, everything from usage rates to climate. What one should count on is for the maintenance and repair costs for these items to increase an average of 10 to 20 percent annually.

So, if you are currently living with major components “on the brink of failure,” it may make more economic sense to replace or repair them sooner rather than later.


Attila Lendvai
VP of Strategic Development
Wo-Built Inc. - Innovative Design and Build

links:
Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation: Home Maintenance Schedule - Regular Maintenance is the Key + Seasonal Home Maintenance

Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation: Maintaining a Home
For most Canadians, their home is their most important investment. It's where your family spends a lot of time, so keeping it healthy, well tended and safe is important. A regular schedule of seasonal maintenance and repairs can help you protect your investment by putting a stop to the most common and costly problems before they occur.

The Globe and Mail: Globe Investor: Personal Finance: Home Cents: Don't let home maintenance costs crush your budget
"... But as the owner of a 1940s bungalow in Toronto, I couldn’t help but ask myself: Is spending a few hundred bucks each month really so bad? Depending on its age and condition, maintaining a home can be painfully expensive, especially when the repair work (i.e. cracked foundation? leaky roof? broken air conditioner? you name it) is unexpected...."
by Katherine Scarrow, Published Thursday, Oct. 06 2011

wobuilt.com/blog: Home Maintenance and Repair Projects

wobuilt.com/blog: Buildings need Doctors, too!