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Guide to Home Improvement Loans

Home Improvements

When to improve and when to maintain

There are some aspects of owning a home that require necessary maintenance to ensure that it is fit and habitable to live in. And there are other aspects of looking after a home that will simply make the place look and feel more comfortable. Find out the difference here.

Doing up a home is fun, but you don't have to do everything.

Some parts of home maintenance are "necessary" and some are just "nice to do." Here are a few tips on the priorities you should be focusing on – and what can be left until you have cash to spare. They are classified into three areas:

• Vital
• Probably necessary
• Not immediately necessary

Vital

In practice, this means the following:

• The roof: it must be watertight. You should be carrying out annual checks on the roof
• Windows: they should be free of rot and peeling paint. It is quite surprising how quickly they can deteriorate. They need to be re-painted at least every three years
• Pointing if brickwork is not properly pointed, water can enter and cause problems to your inside walls. In cold weather, ice can form, which cracks brickwork further and eventually requires extensive – and expensive - remedial action. Pointing is something which, if done properly, will probably last your time in the property
• Damp proofing unless you sort out any causes of damp on the outside, you will end up with damaged plasterwork inside. If you have a timber floor, your joists may start to rot and will need to be replaced. You will need to have at least a 25-year guarantee in place
• Electric’s: poor wiring can kill. Signs that a house needs rewiring include cables that are coated in black rubber or fabric rather than the modern PVC-coated cables.

Also check the fuse box. If it has a wooden box, cast iron switches or green and yellow wires coming from it then it may be out of date and may need replacing, subject to further inspection and testing.

Other signs of potential problems include twisted wires from ceiling roses to light fittings, plugs and sockets that feel hot to the touch or have brown scorch marks on them, fuses that blow for no obvious reason or tripping of circuit breakers, and lights that continually flicker.

According to IEE wiring regulations BS 7671, domestic properties should be checked every 10 years, as old or faulty wiring is a prime cause of electrical fires

• Plumbing (heating and hot water): basically, you want to have a plentiful supply on tap whenever you are likely to need it. So will future buyers of your home, by the way.
• Most boilers will last for between 10 and 15 years, some for longer – up to 20. Much more than that and you not only risk the possibility of fume leaks, you are also likely to be paying upwards of a third more on your heating bills each year. A new boiler will pay for itself over 5-7 years, depending on the type

Probably necessary

• Plastering and re-decorating: we are talking paintwork and cheap paper, not William Pugin reproductions at £80 a metre. A tidy-looking house internally will make you feel better about living in it and it need not cost the earth. If you are re-decorating, you should bank on carrying completing a room every 6-7 years at the least, perhaps doing them in rotation

Not immediately necessary

• New bathroom: this is a potentially expensive refurbishment. You may need to carry it out if you have a coloured bathroom suite, if the current tiles are in poor condition, or if the flooring is unhygienic in any way. But it is not essential in the short term. You can afford to wait. A bathroom suite should last your time in the house
• New carpets/flooring: if the previous owners have left carpets in a terrible state, or in a rather old-fashioned “swirly” style, you may want to consider replacing them quickly. But paying for the whole house to be re-carpeted is probably not worth it until you have decorated. You should re-carpet every 15 years
• New kitchen: if the kitchen is an extremely poor state, this is an area worth looking at. But in most cases, you can probably survive for a long time with a kitchen that is functional, if not quite the way you want it to look, or even if it fails to meet your immediate need. Once fitted, the kitchen will probably last for at least 15 years. So going for particularly “fashionable” styles now will prove costly
• New furniture: you will be buying most furniture once. If you already have it, stick with what you have until you know what the rest of the décor is. Otherwise, the most important things you need are a table and chairs, a bed (or beds) and wardrobes, perhaps a settee.

You should be aiming to replace a bed, certainly its mattress, every 15 years. A good settee ought to have a life of at least 10-15 years. Tables and chairs can be replaced as often as you like – as long as they were cheap in the first place.

Please note that this information does not constitute regulated financial advice, which recommends a course of action based upon the specifics of your personal circumstances. The information is purely intended to provide you with general information only. You should consult an Independent Financial/Mortgage Adviser (IFA) before making any important decisions about your finances.

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