When you are preparing to buy a house, you must also prepare yourself to maintain this house. The average homeowner spends $6,000 And more than 500 hours per year (including five hours a week simple cleaning) maintain their home – clean, repair and manage everything that goes into running a home.

It is of course not surprising that a property requires maintenance, but it is a mistake to assume that all homes have similar maintenance requirements. Some properties have design choices, infrastructure or materials that will require more than your average maintenance. If you’re not careful, you can ignore a warning sign and find yourself stuck in home maintenance hell where trying to keep your house in good shape takes up more and more time and money .

There are clear signs that a property you are considering will require a lot of maintenance. If you notice any of these red flags, you should mentally add a lot more hours and money to your potential maintenance bill.

Outdated infrastructure

A clear sign that the house will be a bear to maintain? Old wiring and plumbing. If you see old school, baseless power sockets anywhere or cast iron plumbingthe house has not been renovated for a long time. Aside from the safety concerns of old wiring and potentially lead pipes, the age of these systems will require more repairs and interim maintenance until you are ready to upgrade and upgrade everything .

High ceilings

Tall, tall ceilings can make a home feel larger and more spacious. But those high ceilings make it harder to maintain and repair the house (not to mention increasing the costs of heating and cooling the place). Painting very high walls and ceilings will likely require rental scaffolding, and even relatively simple maintenance tasks, like changing a light bulb, can be a challenge when you have high ceilings that are beyond the reach of a ladder standard. If it’s a “big room” that looks like a cathedral, you might be up for the challenge, but if your whole house looks like an airplane hangar, think about how the extra work will help. will accumulate over the years.

Inaccessible crawl spaces

If the house has a crawl space underneath, make sure you know how to access it and that it can be accessible. Crawl spaces often contain vital infrastructure for the home, such as water and sewer lines, electrical wiring, and conduits. If the only way to access the crawl space is to crawl under the house from the outside, or if there is no access because the crawl space is too shallow, this will complicate any future repair efforts or upgrade these pipes, cables or conduits, as you will be forced to reassemble your floors, adding expense and time to even relatively simple repairs.

Tons of natural stone

When viewing a potential home, pay attention to the materials used. Natural stones like travertine They are beautiful and add a touch of glamor to any home, but if you see natural stone everywhere, be prepared to spend a lot of time maintaining them. Natural stone is porous, stains easily, and requires regular sealing, so if you see it used on half of the home’s flooring, you better start allowing for extra maintenance time.

Lots of small tiles

Speaking of tiling, the quantity and size of the tile will have a big impact on the time you spend on maintenance. If the house uses a lot of small tiles like penny tiles or mosaic tiles, that means a lot more exposure to grout and a lot more cleaning and sealing you’ll have to do to keep it looking good. The math is simple: more grout lines equal more nooks and crannies for mold and grime to take hold. While a few pennies or mosaic tiles in a bathroom may not be a deal breaker, if they are more prevalent, be prepared for the extra work.

Sumptuous landscaping

Landscaping is a combination of landscaping (stone walkways, walls, water features) and living things. Of course, all of this needs to be maintained, but the living elements are your main concern: if the landscaping is complex and extensive, are you willing to put in the endless effort to keep all those plants a) alive and b) in their proper condition? place? Unless you trade elaborate landscaping for plants that require low maintenanceit will be a constant battle – or a constant expense if you choose to hire landscapers to maintain everything.

And if there’s a swimming pool in the garden, you’re even worse: Pools need to be cleaned regularly, filtration systems need to be maintained, water chemistry needs to be maintained, and something needs to be done about it during the winter if you live in a cool climate. A swimming pool is a lot of work on top of other landscaping jobs, so be prepared to be busy.

Lots of windows

A house with lots of windows is flooded with light and can appear fresh and airy. It’s also a maintenance pit, as each of those windows will need to be cleaned, caulked, repaired (including damaged screens), and possibly painted. This will of course be true in any home with any number of windows, but each additional window in the home represents additional time and cost to maintain, so moving into a glass home should give you pause.

Anything else to consider? Custom sizes. It’s one thing to replace or repair standard windows: if the windows in your home are all custom sizes, you’ll have to spend even more money to replace them.

Complex roof

The roof of a house is vital: it protects you from the elements. Any roof will require regular work inspection And interview work, and every roof is vulnerable to occasional leaks. But if your roof is “complex,” meaning it has many angles, gables, and other features (as opposed to a relatively simple flat roof or A-frame), it will require a lot more maintenance. Indeed, every place where you experience a change of plane (when a horizontal aspect of the roof meets a vertical aspect), you will have a vulnerable point. The most common leak points on a roof are around those areas where you rely on flashing to keep things dry, so the more you have, the harder you’ll work to keep your roof in good shape.