Checks To Make Before Leaving Your Home For A Long Time

If you are due to be leaving your home for an extended period of time, there are all sorts of things that you will need to be careful with before you do so. It can be frightening leaving your home alone, as you can never be quite sure what will happen to it, and it’s obviously the most important place in the world to you. With that in mind, it can be useful to know about some of the checks that you can make before leaving your home for a long time, to help give you a peace of mind.

In this post, we are going to discuss some of those checks which are especially important. As long as you are looking at the following, you should find that you are much more confident to leave your home as it is while you go away on holiday, or wherever it is that you might be going. Let’s take a look.

The Roof

Let’s start with the very top. The roof is one part of the home that will need a lot of care, and you really need to make sure that you are doing all you can to look after it as well as possible. It’s certainly something that you should check before you go away for a long period of time, because if there is anything distinctly wrong with it you are going to find that you struggle to relax while leaving it alone.

If you are not careful, your roof might be letting the elements in – and the last thing you want is to return to a home that has rainwater coming in, for instance. So visually check the roof from the ground to see whether it seems okay, or damaged. And make sure you hire someone to take a closer look if you are worried about it in particular.

If there is anything wrong, you need to call in the roof repair services to take a look. They should be able to help you out and should get your roof to a much better state before you go away. Call them early and make sure you do this long before you go away.

Windows & Doors

For the sake of security, you should also of course check over the windows and doors, to ensure that they are as they should be. Any issues with any of these could mean that your home is simply not as secure as you would hope, and that is not a state that you want to leave your home in at any time, let alone for a long period of time while you are elsewhere entirely. So take a thorough look at the windows and the doors to ensure that they are as they should be.

What you are looking for first of all is anything obviously wrong. That might include cracks in the windows or a door that is coming off its hinges. These issues obviously need fixing up as soon as possible. Beyond that, you are looking for some signs that people could probably relatively easily break into the home, whether it’s due to a window that is not able to properly lock, or a door that might be susceptible to some force.

You might need to think outside the box a little here. But you should be able to clearly identify any issues that there are, and then you have an idea of what you might need to fix up. Make sure you don’t overlook this, because it is a very important part of looking after your home while you are away.

Plumbing

If anything goes wrong with the plumbing, it can lead to water damage and flooding, so it’s really important to make sure that this is in a good state of repair before you leave the home alone for a long time. There are a few main things you will want to check, and some things to get ready before you go away. For instance, there is a need to make sure that there are no burst pipes, and that is something you should be really careful not to overlook.

You should also check for dripping taps, as over time this can cause huge problems, and of course might end up being quite costly and not very eco-friendly too! You should ensure that the main stopcocks are turned off in order to allow this to happen, and you should make sure that you are going to be careful about not letting pipes freeze too.

To ensure that, you have to think about letting a little warm water through the pipes while you are away, using the timer on the boiler. That should ensure that the pipes are going to be okay while you are away.

Security System

If you have a security system already in place, you need to make sure that it is fully working and functioning, and that you can trust it to look after your home. At the very least, a security system should act as a deterrent to anyone who is considering breaking into your home. But in some cases, they can also provide you with eyes on your property while you are not there, through your phone or some other system, and sometimes they even automatically contact police if there is a break-in.

What level of security system to get is up to you, but the main thing is to make sure that you are aware of it and that you have checked that it works. If you need to get one, make sure that it’s a trusted one that has good reviews. Having a good security system is definitely going to help you to feel so much more relaxed about leaving your home.

Those are the main ways to ensure your home is ready to be left for a long time.

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