Manufactured Home Annual Maintenance Checklist

For most Americans, the largest purchase they ever make will be their home. It’s a huge investment and one that will provide years of memories, comfort, and security for you and your family. And while getting a home is a great moment in everyone’s life, it does come with some work. A well-maintained home is a happy one, but one that is not well maintained can be tremendously stressful.

After you’ve bought a manufactured home, you’ll want to give it the love and attention of any other house. Upkeeping your home can also reduce your manufactured home insurance premiums! Here are some tips to help you with your manufactured home maintenance.

We’ve broken up the maintenance tips into two parts: Fall/Winter maintenance and Spring/Summer maintenance. This is a great way to remember it, and it also breaks up the work so that you’re not slammed with maintenance at one point during the year.

MANUFACTURED HOME MAINTENANCE IN FALL & WINTER

In the fall, you have lower temperatures, plenty of leaves to rake, summer furniture to put away, and new decorations to put outside the home. And with that changing weather, we need to think about keeping our manufactured homes warm and comfortable. The first item to look at is your doors and windows. As the air warms up in the summer, doors, and windows can expand. And when they contract in the cool temperature in the fall, gaps can form. If these gaps cause doors and windows to not fit well, air can escape and make the home feel cool and drafty as the outside temperature drops. This can make your home uncomfortable, and it will also cause you to have high power bills.

Fall is also an excellent time to inspect the exterior of your manufactured home. Take a walk around the outside and review all of the home’s exterior components. Here are some common issues to look for:

• Missing or damaged skirting
• Damaged vinyl or hardboard siding
• Missing or damaged shingles
• Broken windows or door screens
• Cracks in masonry on the chimney or foundation
• Water leaks from spigots or A/C drain

The changing seasons are also an excellent time to check those smoke detectors to ensure they’re working correctly. If your smoke detectors use batteries, change them out every fall. Setting the same time every year is a great way to remind yourself to change the batteries. If they’re hard-wired to your home, just walk around to ensure each one is still working correctly. There’s nothing more important than your loved ones, and smoke detectors are crucial to keeping your family safe. In some places, smoke detectors can lower your manufactured home insurance premiums!

MANUFACTURED HOME MAINTENANCE IN SPRING AND SUMMER

When the clock springs forward and the temperature starts to warm up, you’ll be getting outside and enjoying the warm sun for the first time since fall. As the weather warms, it’s tempting to turn all your attention outside your home toward your lawn and garden and ignore things going on inside. Also, if you go outside to admire that beautiful green lawn, check your gutters to make sure they are clear of leaves and debris. Trees lose all their leaves in the fall and winter, which then accumulate in gutters. Ignoring clogged drains can cause water damage to your manufactured home, so you need to check them regularly to ensure they’re clear of debris.

You’ll also want to inspect the outside of your manufactured home for any damage from rough winter weather. The freeze/thaw cycle can cause home components to expand and contract, damaging or destroying them. You’ll need to inspect all the exterior features, including the roof, siding, air conditioning unit, and foundation, for any damage that occurred during winter weather. If you do not feel comfortable inspecting your roof or making any necessary repairs yourself, don’t hesitate to contact a local professional to help you.

Good weather also brings pollen, so it is also essential to clean your windows, blinds, and curtains to prevent pollen and dust build-up. Remember to clean the inside AND outside when cleaning the windows, as there can be dirt on both. Changing your air filter is critical to keeping your HVAC system in good working order and keeping the air clean inside your home. A neglected air filter can damage or ruin the HVAC system in your manufactured home, which is a very costly repair. The 10 minutes it takes to change an air filter is always a good investment of your time.

Manufactured homes are built incredibly well, but even the most well-built home needs regular maintenance. Checking and maintaining your manufactured home each season will ensure that your home stays in good shape for a lifetime. And in the event of damage from covered events, CoverTree is here to help you get manufactured home insurance. Maintenance is helpful, but sometimes damage just happens. Rest assured that CoverTree can help you through the difficult time when you have significant damage to your manufactured home.

Click here to start the insurance application process and take the first step to become a member of the CoverTree manufactured home insurance family. We look forward to working with you.