After thirty years doing residential renovation and contracting work in Vermont and western Massachusetts, I’ve developed strong opinions about houses and the people who own them. Most of those opinions are about the same handful of mistakes, made over and over. Here are the ones I’ve seen most often.
Ignoring the water. The number one problem in houses isn’t electrical, isn’t structural — it’s water. Water gets in, sits somewhere it shouldn’t, and creates problems that compound over years before anyone notices. Most of the expensive repairs I’ve made over my career trace back to a gutter that wasn’t cleaned, a flashing that wasn’t sealed, a grade that sloped toward the foundation instead of away from it. Walk around your house after a hard rain and look at where the water goes. If it’s going toward your foundation, that’s a cheap problem now and an expensive one later.
Skipping the prep. This is specifically about painting but applies to most finishing work. The prep — cleaning, sanding, priming — is eighty percent of the result. The coat of paint is almost incidental. Most DIY paint jobs look mediocre because the prep was rushed. Professional jobs look good for the same reason: they were done right to begin with.
Hiring the cheapest bid. I’ve spent a significant portion of my career fixing work done by contractors who were hired because they were the low number. Three bids, set aside the lowest, ask the remaining two for references, and call those references. That process eliminates most of the bad actors. The phrase “you get what you pay for” is a cliche because it’s accurate.
Not knowing where the shutoffs are. Know where your main water shutoff is. Know your electrical panel and which breaker controls which circuit. Know your gas shutoff if you have gas. This sounds basic. Roughly half the homeowners I’ve worked with didn’t know at least one of these things. In an emergency, that costs money.
Treating maintenance as optional. Houses are systems that require maintenance. Deferred maintenance doesn’t disappear — it accumulates with interest. Gutters, caulking, the roof, the furnace — these aren’t improvements, they’re the cost of owning a house. People who skip them for years and then wonder why they’re facing expensive repairs are like someone who never changes the oil and is surprised when the engine goes.
None of this is complicated. Most of it is just paying attention on a regular basis.
DougAlexander.net 