12 things a new homeowner often doesn’t know

As a new homeowner, you trade the challenges of acquiring a home for those of home ownership. Fortunately, these tips make handling home-ownership challenges less stressful.

For a new homeowner, a bust pipe burst or the smell of gas in the house can cause a panic. Not knowing how to shut off your water and gas only compounds your stress. (It could also majorly damage your home and your family’s health.) Invest the time to locate your gas shutoff valve and your water shutoff valve before an emergency strikes.

Here are 13 things a handyman won’t tell you (but every homeowner needs to know).

Definitely hang on to any documents related to your home for as long as you own it. This includes the deed, mortgage (or deed of trust) and promissory note, closing disclosure, purchase contract and selling disclosure, home warranty, home inspection report, and receipts for any appliances or renovations. It’s best to keep them all in one place, such as a safe deposit box or safe.

Your home inspection report offers a new homeowner far more than just a passing grade for your home. It also provides a wealth of information to a new homeowner about the state of the home: hidden maintenance issues, the age of key appliances, the condition of your roof and much more. Read it over to get a solid idea of what kinds of repairs you need to tackle down the road.

Here are 11 secrets contractors wish all first-home buyers knew about. 

Most people give spare keys to important people in their lives. When you first move in, you don’t know how many other people still have keys. That’s why a new homeowner should swap out all the locks as soon as possible. If you have standard locks, you can call a locksmith or simply re-key the current door locks by removing the lock cylinder and changing the pins.

Everyone needs to reset a tripped electrical circuit breaker occasionally. That’s an easy job if you know where your circuit breaker box is located and which breaker controls which circuit. With any luck, you’ll find accurate labels – if not, a new homeowner needs to label which breakers control which individual circuits.

Find out more things most homeowners aren’t doing but need to.

Whether the air-con stops working in the height of summer or an overflowing toilet won’t shut off, you need to know who to call when disaster strikes. Compile a list of trusted plumbers, electricians, HVAC contractors and other maintenance specialists to save time and hassle later on – know these signs you’re about to hire a bad contractor to help you. Recommendations from neighbours  can help you find trusted names. Of course, we also recommend that you get familiar and comfortable with DIY fixes, repairs and updates by consulting the Handyman website.

It’s a requirement to have a working smoke alarm in most homes, while some layouts require one per level or more. Make sure you have enough detectors in your new home, that they are not older than seven years and that they are in good working order.

Learn how to install a smoke alarm. 

Unfortunately, everyone gets locked out of their home from time to time. Plan ahead for the inevitable by giving your key to a trusted neighbour or stashing it in a super-secret hiding place. You can simply avoid the situation altogether by installing keyless locks.

A good hot water temperature is 48.89 degrees C—any hotter runs the risk of scalds. So a new homeowner should definitely check out the water heater and adjust its temperature if necessary.

Watch out for these home expenses that are draining your bank account.