It’s your port in the storm, the center of your family’s life, and one of your largest investments. 

Putting it mildly, your home isimportant.If you want to save money, preserve your investment, and avoid homeownership headaches, keeping your home in good condition is crucial. In this article, we’ll review some of our best home maintenance tips for keeping your home—no matter its age—in like-new condition.

Schedule seasonal maintenance for your HVAC systems

Your family relies on your air conditioner and furnace for your year-round comfort. Even more than that, a properly working furnace helps protect your home in the winter, guarding it against the bitter winter cold that would otherwise freeze your pipes. Your comfort and safety matters, which is why scheduling seasonal tune-ups for your cooling and heating systems just makes sense.

For HVAC systems, maintenance is crucial. Ifair conditioners and furnaces go without professional upkeepfor an extended period of time, they’ll not only be more likely to break down, but they’ll also become far less energy efficient. Just as with your car, skipping maintenance appointments could also lead to the premature repairs on your HVAC systems.

By keeping up with maintenance on these systems and addressing any recommended repairs quickly, you’ll help keep your home comfortable and your energy bills low. In the fall, be sure to call a local HVAC professional in your area to make a furnace tune-up appointment, and do the same in the spring for your home’s cooling system.

Care for your drains and sewer line

When most people think about “wear-and-tear” being put on a home, they think of scuffed-up walls or a fireplace that needs cleaning. However, some of the worst long-term stress put on a home is effectively invisible to the homeowner.Deep inside your drains and your sewer line, years of accumulated grease, oils, and non-organic waste could be forming a nasty clog that will one day cause you and your home a world of headache. This is called a sewer line blockage.

So, what can you do to keep your home’s pipes, drains, and sewer line like-new? Good habits play a key role here: avoid disposing of grease, cooking oils, or other fatty substances in the sink’s drain. Instead, pour these into a glass mason jar while still hot, and then dispose of them in the trash once cooled and solidified. Grease is especially dangerous for pipes because it can start to cool and solidify before it has exited the line, forming a partial blockage.

If you are noticing that your drains are experiencing problems or clogging, be proactive! Call a locally trusted plumber who offers sewer line and drain inspections. Using a camera snake tool, a professional can fully inspect the sewer line to determine if a clog is starting to form. From there, the clog can be cleared before it leads to a disastrous sewer backup situation.

Be an active homeowner, but know your own limits

Ultimately, being proactive is the key to keeping a home like-new. Make a maintenance checklist for your home and run through it on a regular basis. Many home problems—from roof leaks to broken appliances—are far less expensive to fix or clean up if caught early. In other cases, replacing things before they break can help you avoid the inconvenience and interruption caused by, say, a broken shower handle or a malfunctioning thermostat.

However, not everything can—or should—be handled by the homeowner. It’s crucial that you know when to call in a professional. In general, we recommend that you always bring in a licensed, experienced expert when it comes to your home’s roof, plumbing, electrical, or HVAC systems. However, this is also true for anything you don’t feel comfortable fixing or addressing on your own.

Remember: if you want to keep your home in its best-possible condition moving forward, it’s better to have things done right the first time. Hiring a professional is key.