Do you ever sit back after days of hard work and look at the outside of your house, silently marveling at its beauty? Everything looks pristine and perfect – the only problem is that it took you days to reach this point, and you know that it’ll all be undone within a few weeks, so you’ll need to head out and sort everything again.
This is the telltale sign of a high-maintenance exterior, and it’ll be the bane of your life.
Every home requires some degree of maintenance, but wouldn’t it be lovely to have a low-maintenance exterior for once? Something you can just let lie for weeks or months without needing to embark on a lengthy mission to keep it all tidy. It sounds like a dream, though any homeowner can achieve this by following these key tips.
Switch To Lower-Maintenance Building Materials
Start with the immediate exterior of your home and address some of the building materials. You’re mainly looking at two elements here:
- Siding
- Roofing
Siding offers protection around the walls of your home, though many properties were built with some type of wood back in the day. While this looks gorgeous, anything made from wood requires extensive maintenance. Instead, swap it out for fiber cement siding that’s way more weather-resistant and durable. James Hardie is the go-to brand for this, and any decent James Hardie siding installer can handle the job for you in a couple of days. Your home now has extra protection from the elements, and you don’t have to constantly clean or treat the siding so it retains its beauty for much, much longer.
With roofing, if you’ve got standard asphalt shingles, then they do require some level of upkeep, particularly if you want to stop moss and algae from growing on them – which is shockingly common. If you’d rather have a low-maintenance option, then consider a metal or concrete tile roof. Both require almost zero upkeep – maybe a pressure wash once a year – and they’ll keep your home looking pretty.
Transform Your Landscaping
In general, landscaping requires so much effort to keep things in order, but it doesn’t have to be like this. Your problem is that your outdoor area contains too many high-maintenance aspects – starting with the obvious one: your lawn. As nice as it is to see a large section of green grass behind your house, it takes so much effort to keep it that way. You need to cut it every couple of weeks during the growing season, treat it to ensure it remains green and healthy, water it regularly, and so on.
You’ll genuinely be out there every week or so throughout the summer, and it could take you a couple of hours depending on how big your lawn is. So, consider transforming your landscaping by getting rid of some of the grass. Dig it up, flatten the area, and lay down stones, gravel or paving stones. You can so easily reduce your lawn size by half and still have a gorgeous garden – it’s just now half as hard to maintain, which is great!
Apply the same thought process to other elements of your yard: think about what causes you the biggest headache and see if you can replace it with a low-maintenance alternative. Instead of thick bushes and hedges that get overgrown easily, swap them for flowerbeds full of >native plants, etc.
Repaint Your Property
Sometimes, all you need is a new lick of paint to reduce your exterior maintenance schedule. Now, there are two problems with your current paint job, which means you’re always dealing with maintenance tasks:
- It peels off or fades quickly
- It shows dirt easily
Sort this out by choosing >high-quality exterior paint that’s designed to stand up to the elements and last for an extremely long time. Coat the outside of your home in this – if necessary – as well as your decking or any decorative trims. Already, you’ve improved the maintenance because this paint won’t peel off or fade within a few months, so you don’t need to touch it up.
More importantly, try to pick colors that don’t show dirt as easily. Avoid painting your home white, as it will display even the slightest bit of dirt. If the paint can obscure the dirt a little bit, then you don’t need to constantly go outside to clean it off.
Improve Drainage Around Your Home
Most people underestimate how important good drainage is for their homes. If rainwater doesn’t drain away properly, then it can waterlog your yard or pool around the roof and cause water damage. Bad guttering and downspouts could mean you end up with water stains all down the side of your home, which you need to clean every month or so.
Focus on >improving the drainage so water runs cleanly away from your home and yard. This will make everything easier to look after – and it’s genuinely so worth booking an appointment with some drainage or guttering specialists just to get this done professionally.
Deal With Any Problem Causers
A problem causer is something that disrupts your exterior and makes it harder to maintain. The best example of this is an overgrown tree that hangs over your yard, close to your home. Leaves and branches fall into your garden, meaning you’re always out there getting rid of them. Or, you end up with clogged gutters because stuff from the tree gets stuck in them.
In this situation, you should trim back the tree – or consider removing it entirely – to prevent further maintenance issues for your yard. Even if you have to get someone to trim back the branches every year or so, it could be better than constantly picking up leaves or scrubbing away sap stains on your home. Identify certain problem causers and see if you can deal with them.
A low-maintenance exterior doesn’t mean you can sit back and do nothing forever. It simply means that you shouldn’t be outside looking after your home every few days or weeks. Homeowners who follow these tips tend to end up with houses that look great with minimal upkeep, meaning you’ve got more free time to do whatever you like!
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