Many of you have heard this before, how a $3 dollar tube of caulking can save you $1000’s in repair costs. As winter approaches, I think this tip bears repeating. You can read one of my other articles for more tips on weatherizing your home before winter arrives.
Exterior caulking is a pliable material designed to span small gaps between joints around the outside of your house. Some common places to find these joints are where siding meets a corner trim board, and around doors and windows. Weather, sun, and temperature can cause your caulking to degrade, crack, shrink, and generally fail over time. This can lead to moisture seeping in and the inevitable wood rot damage to follow.
Autumn is a great time to fix minor exterior caulking problems to kee your home in top shape for the winter months to come.
What to do? This is something a handy homeowner or Do-It-Yourselfer can do at least once per year. Simply visually check around the outside of your entire home. If you find degraded caulking, remove any loose caulking and reapply. I like to use white paintable exterior caulking. After the caulking dries you can paint right over with your matching paint color. While you have the paint can out, any areas of bare wood in need of touch-up can be painted at the same time. If home improvement is not your thing, hire someone to do it for you.
I have heard this one before…My home is newer and has cement board siding. I don’t need to worry about this right? Homes that have cement board (hardi plank or hardi siding are other names for similar item) also have many areas that are wood and need sealing. Some common areas typically constructed of wood include: corner boards, facsia boards (this is the board where your gutter attaches), soffit (this is the area underneath your roof over hang or eave) and around doors and windows.
If you find areas that are rotten, don’t wait to take care of it. It won’t get better and in fact, will only gets worse over time. Also, rotting wood can be an invitation to some wood destroying insects like termites and carpenter ants. So hire someone to take care of this for you before the problem gets bigger and more costly.
As a contractor, I see wood rot damage over and over in homes that leads to costly repairs that could potentially be avoided through routine home maintenance. Your house is likely your largest investment. Don’t wait until you have a big problem on your hands. Act while it is still small. And remember a little bit of annual home maintenance goes a long way.
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