6 Things You Must Do When You’ve Lived in Your House for 5 Years — And How Much They Cost

According to the April Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, homeowners were set to spend 7% less on renovations and upgrades in 2024. Experts attributed this to higher interest rates, soaring inflation and a slump in national home sales. However, you don’t want to neglect basic maintenance that could help you save thousands of dollars in the future.

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Of course, it’s hard to complete that home maintenance when you don’t know what needs to be done. To offer you some guidance, GOBankingRates reached out to experts for their input on home maintenance you should consider after living in your home for five years.

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Repair or Replace Roofing

“If you have lived in your home for five years, there’s a good chance that your property has experienced several severe storms,” said Josh Rudin, owner of ASAP Restoration LLC . “When severe weather hits your property, it can dislodge shingles on the roof, spread the sheeting layers underneath, clog the vent pipes and loosen the connections that hold air conditioners and other HVAC components to the roof.”

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How Much Will This Cost?

Rudin noted that a roof repair can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $1,000. However, replacing your roof can cost up to $10,000. According to data from Angi, the national average for a roof replacement is $9,425.

Vent Cleaning

Brandon Walker, the construction manager for ASAP Restoration, said that if you’ve lived in your property for five years and haven’t had your dryer vents cleaned, then they’re likely in serious need of it.

How Much Will This Cost?

“Vent cleaning is usually pretty affordable, ranging from $50 on sale or off-season to $500 in season and with a big project or severely clogged vents,” Walker said.

According to Angi, you can expect to spend $381 on average for this service.

Gutter Cleaning and Purging

“When you clean the gutters once a year, there tend to be little bits of [leaves] left behind, since you can’t get every fragment,” said Geoff Walker, superintendent of ASAP Restoration. “Over the years, these fragments can add up and form a kind of soil inside of the gutter itself. If seeds land in these deposits, then they can sprout and spread apart the roofing layers or destroy the gutters completely.”

The best way to prevent a disaster like this is to ensure that the gutters are cleaned once a year and that the entire system is purged every five years. This could involve pressure washing out debris or using a local gutter cleaning company.

How Much Will This Cost?

Walker said the cleaning tools you need to pressure wash the system yourself are pretty cheap — $50 or so — but the service to have the system cleaned and purged can be up to $400-$500, depending on the size of the roof and, in some cases, the angle of the pitch. The national average for this service is $167, per Angi data.

Chimney Sweep

“If you’re like most people who have a fireplace in their home, you probably don’t use it to provide heat and instead admire it for aesthetic reasons,” said Paige Warrington, project supervisor at ASAP Restoration. “That said, even a rare holiday fire can get a lot of soot caked onto the vent stack of the chimney. If this soot catches fire, it can flash back down into the home and cause a structure fire.”

To prevent this problem, the best option is to hire a chimney cleaning service to come and eliminate the creosote from the pipes.

How Much Will This Cost?

Warrington warned that you don’t want to do this on your own, because the tools can cost as much as the service. According to her, the average price for the service is between $100 and $200, depending on how many chimneys you have or how many floors down the sweep has to go. The price range for this service on Angi is between $129 and $380.

Reseal Driveway

Rudin noted that if you’ve been in your home for five years and haven’t resealed your driveway, it might be in need, and you just don’t realize it.

He added, “Often, the degradation of driveway surface materials is so gradual that many people don’t notice it happening. This can lead to cracking and spreading, which can rapidly deteriorate the functionality of your driveway.”

How Much Will This Cost?

According to Rudin, a driveway resealing can run as little as $200 in some areas or as much as $2,000 for larger driveways in season. The average is $563, per Angi, but will vary based on the size of the driveway.

Flush Water Heater

“Many different kinds of dissolved mineral deposits in the water can precipitate and form clogs inside the water heater,” said Al Ruggie, marketing director of ASAP Restoration. “These clogs can reduce the amount of hot water available when in use, and they can also cause the system to rust out and eventually fail. When this happens, it can cause huge amounts of flooding that can and will ruin a home.”

The best way to prevent this situation is to flush out the water heater every five years. You can do this by attaching a hose to the drain port, emptying out the system and turning off the heating element, so it doesn’t get damaged.

How Much Will This Cost?

Ruggie said flushing the water heater can be a free task if you have a hose that can connect and is long enough to transport the water out of the area and away from your home. If you outsourced this service, it could cost you around $160.

This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : 6 Things You Must Do When You’ve Lived in Your House for 5 Years — And How Much They Cost