Before you start a DIY Project - Think Maintenance

Maintenance Continued

• Are the current heating and ventilation services adequate? Cost effective? And esthetically pleasing?
  
• Does your open fire fill your house with smoke? Do you need your chimney cleaned or a new enclosed fireplace installed. Is airconditioning an easier option with the ability to heat and cool the room. Think about how much you spend on fuel ie wood, coal as well as the time in chopping and lugging it in as well as cleaning out the fire place, and compare it to electric heating or gas heating and see how they will work for you. You may be happy to stay as is but if you are about to renovate it is a good time to review heating and ventilation.
  
• Do the floor boards creak? Are they of sound quality? Do they need replacing?
  
• If you are going to change your floor coverings it is a great time to repair the floor underneath. Get rid of the creaking forever.

• Does all the door hardware, window catches, the locks etc function? Need repair?
  
• A simple task walk around with a pen and paper and check them all, list up the ones to repair, if it is more that 50% I would probably replace them all as the other 50% will probably break in the near future also. If you can't find keys to lock, call out the locksmith and get some cut.