In this instructional video, Beth from HomeZada explains how routine home‑maintenance directly contributes to the safety and health of household members. She walks through a series of practical, low‑cost actions: regularly changing air‑filters and water‑filtration cartridges to improve indoor air and water quality; testing and replacing batteries in smoke and carbon‑monoxide detectors, or upgrading to newer alert‑enabled models; inspecting plumbing for drips, leaks, and using smart leak sensors to prevent burst pipes and mold growth; cleaning gutters and ensuring proper grading to keep water away from foundations and basements; maintaining dryer vents and stove hoods to reduce fire risk; and keeping kitchen areas clear of flammable items. Throughout, Beth stresses the importance of documenting and scheduling these tasks in HomeZada’s maintenance tracker so nothing is forgotten. The overall message is that consistent, documented upkeep not only preserves home value but also creates a healthier, safer environment for family and pets.
Chapters
Hi everyone, Beth here from HomeZada. I apologize, I've got a lot of light going on here. Let me close this, that might help. Nope, not doing it. Well, a little bit. So I wanted to talk to you a little bit today about how caring for your home can actually protect your loved ones. A lot of people are unaware That if you care for your home, it could actually have a downstream effect on how you care for the people that live in your home. The first thing that you can do is take a look at conducting regular home maintenance. Regular home maintenance not only maintains the value of your home and can actually increase it because you're caring for your home, but it can also— Make sure that your home is safe for everyone in your family. And here are some simple tips. One, if you change your air filters in your home, then you are actually cleaning the air on a regular basis. And if any of your family members may suffer from asthma or some other component, you definitely want to clean these air filters so that their asthma is manageable or Maybe you are helping them correct their asthma. The same thing goes for if you have air purifying filters inside your house. You need to either clean those filters or you need to change them out, similar to an air filter. So make sure you do that. If you have water treatments on your water system, so let's say you've got a water filtration system, whether it's tied to your sink or whether it's tied to your home, That's another thing to make sure that you're constantly changing those air filters— excuse me, those filters and the water treatments. Because if you're not changing them, then you're back to where you were in the first place and drinking water that probably has not been processed enough to help your family stay healthy and happy. And I drink a lot of water myself personally, so I love good clean water, and I'm always looking to make sure the water is as clean as possible, and purification filters are a way to help do that. There's a ton of different filters out there and a ton of different systems, so investigate the water purification system that's good for you if you decide to go that route. The other thing is you're just using maybe Brita filters or some other purification system that sits on your counter, and that's another opportunity, but those filters also need to be changed. So you can make sure you track all those changes And identify them by using HomeZada for those maintenance tips. The other thing that you can do by using home maintenance to protect your family is checking on your smoke detector batteries. Oftentimes your smoke detectors will alert you when your batteries are going low, which is fantastic. Some people still have older smoke detectors that unfortunately do not alert you. So you may have to manually alert them and open them up and exchange the batteries. So make sure you document that on when that needs to happen. The other option is to create a project, and that project is replacing your smoke detectors with newer ones that have alert systems on them. So that's another thing. Many homes Today are also starting to require carbon monoxide detectors. Same thing. So when you have a carbon monoxide detector, very similar to a smoke detector, you— I've got my hair in the way— you can— what is it? You need to make sure the batteries are operating efficiently in those as well. Some require batteries, some require some other components. But make sure that they're working properly and they're in areas of your house that have a chance of being close to like stoves and what have you, because there's some carbon monoxide that can come off of that. And they're in bedroom areas, because bedrooms are the area where if you're sleeping and you suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning, you may not wake up the next day. So really key. Smoke detectors in bedrooms and carbon monoxide detectors in bedrooms, and also in areas close by to those key areas like kitchens and what have you that may need that. What else can you do to know that maintenance is actually protecting your home? Let me think about this for a second. I'm gonna look at my cheat sheet a little bit. So one of the things you can do is. Also make sure that your pipes are also working properly. Check your toilets, make sure they're operating popular— excuse me, properly. Check your sinks, make sure your faucets aren't dripping. If they are, then this becomes an opportunity— excuse me, this becomes an opportunity to fix all of those areas. The worst thing that could happen is you have a broken pipe somewhere, whether it's in a toilet, whether it's in a faucet, whether it's somewhere else, and all of a sudden that pipe burst and it's running water down the insides of your walls, on your floors. Another way to actually get alerted if there's a water leak is there are smart home technology devices that you can place around areas that could be sensitive to water, whether it's a dishwasher Maybe it's a toilet somewhere in a bathroom because of sinks and what have you. But adding those and also checking those areas will help avoid any problems as it relates to burst pipes, which could cause more damage to your house and also more problems with your family. So if you do have water leaks, you really need to make sure that you're checking not only the floors but also your walls because a lot of mold can build up. from water in a house, and that's really, really important to avoid mold because it can make people very, very sick. And it can actually have some level of poisonous effects, so you want to avoid that and make sure you're protecting your family that way. In addition to the areas inside your house, it's also important to make sure that your gutters are cleaned on the outside of your house. So your roof gutters are collecting water and trying to streamline that water away from the house so that it's not getting back into the walls and the foundation, which could cause problems to your house. One of the areas that we look at when it comes to gutters is making sure you remove the debris so that water can flow in its natural path in the gutters the way they were designed and down the side pipes from your house. The worst thing that could happen is your gutters aren't clean and you have water flowing over the top— I'm sorry, I'm demonstrating it— over the top of your gutters and it's running down the side of your house. Depending on the type of house that you have, that water can seep into your walls And it can sit there and gather up moisture, which is also another area where mold can transpire and grow. And in some areas of the country, especially the West Coast right now, we have a lot of rain happening right now, and that rain will continue to sit in that area and cause more damage. So that's one thing. Making sure your gutters are clean will also protect your walls from mold. The other thing that your gutters being cleaned will do is it'll protect your foundation and your grading of your house. And generally, your grading from your house is away from your house. There's a slight grade that goes down and away from your house to avoid water moving closer to your house, causing more damage. It's very gradual. Most people don't even know it's there. But if you have water falling down and seeping down the sides of your house, Then that grade, very similar to what we saw with the dam, starts loosening up dirt and it actually can create almost puddles or ravines close to the walls of your house, which could cause more damage. For everyone who has basements, this could actually start getting water seeping into your basements as well, which could cause the same amount of problems, whether it's mold, whether it's damage to the house, but also cause problems for your family. So we definitely want to try to make sure we're maintaining our house to protect our family members, um, especially because some of these things are very simple that we can get scheduled. And also in the long run, we have happy, healthy family members. Some other tips to do that affect fire in your house— most people forget about these things. So one of the first ones is cleaning out your dryer vent. Really, really important. I know some people that didn't know they need to do this, and not only does it affect your energy bills because your dryer is being forced to work harder and it takes longer sometimes to get your clothes dry, but the lint buildup is highly flammable. And if you're not cleaning out that lint hose in the, the dryer vent hose in the back of the dryer and out where it needs to get exhausted, Then there's lint buildup that's building up inside that vent. Oftentimes when people haven't cleaned it, it actually starts building lint on the outside of the dryer vent hose, on the back of the dryer, and on the walls. Extremely, extremely, extremely dangerous. If you feel like you're not equipped to do this yourself, you can easily hire a local professional to do this. It's Very affordable, they get it done very quickly, and we recommend you do this every year to avoid any buildup. But there's a lot of homes that catch fire because of this. I think it's like 14,000 homes a year catch fire because of a dryer vent not being clean. If you've got pets that actually sleep in your laundry room or something else to that effect, you definitely don't want them to suffer In case there is some sort of damaging fire. The other thing that you can do, which is also really important, if you have a fume hood or some sort of hood above your stove that catches the smoke inhalation, most homes have to have this because it's an exhaust system and it's safety, so it's usually in permits and in engineering specs for homes. But if you have this, it's a good thing to clean these vents. Now there's all different kinds of hoods. Some have filters on them, some are, um, just grates. Some have larger grates than other grates, but definitely give them a scrub. You will see that there's so much oil that has built up just from natural cooking, and when that oil builds up, it's Kinda gross, just saying, 'cause I have to clean mine. It's just gross. 'Cause I love to cook. It's a byproduct of cooking. But they get so disgusting that you really need to really scrub them. I'm not a big fan of using really harsh chemicals to clean them, but every now and then I have to mix soap and water with a little bit of ammonia because the buildup is so Thick, but if you do use ammonia, wear gloves. Nasty. But make sure you clean that. And my suggestion is, depending on how much you cook, clean it at least twice a year, maybe even three times a year if you cook a lot. I have to clean mine a little bit more often because I cook a lot, and all that grease builds up. And if you think about it. When you're cooking, it's easily flammable. So it's— I just can't get over it. I'm sorry, I just can't get over it. It's so nasty in and of itself. But you definitely don't want to avoid kitchen fires, and kitchen fires are one of the number one fires that occur in the house. That also goes into place keeping away your dish towels from your stove. A lot of people are getting induction stoves, which are a little bit safer, but in that case, you also have to be careful not to place your hand On the top of the area because it's hot. You can burn yourself. So keep in mind, um, those scenarios about fire and/or burning in the kitchen. Move— clean out your, um, stove hoods and vents. Move dish towels away from your stove and educate kids and pets and family and everything else on why they need to stay away from stoves because they're just hot until you have the time to educate them on How— what it means to cook. Because I loved cooking when I was a kid. Still love it. Um, what else do we need to do to track better home maintenance to make sure you're safe? I talked about fires, talked about water. I think that's good for now. So I just wanted to give you those tips on how effective home maintenance can actually have a positive situation on your family. It's really, really important to understand that your home is someplace where you have the opportunity to care for it and live in it and party in it and share experiences in it and memories in it. But you also have the opportunity to care for it so that your family and your pets are all safe when they do live in your home. So I hope these tips were helpful to you. I'm always a firm believer in documenting your maintenance tasks. Yes, I love HomeZada. Yes, I use it intensely, and my maintenance schedule is always up to date because I just can't remember everything. I just can't remember when I cleaned my dryer vent last and when I'm gonna do it next. So I make sure I have everything scheduled so that I can have access to it right away. So I hope you gained a lot, and let me know, or anyone in our team know, what kind of questions you have. about home maintenance and how to care for your home, or any other factor around, around HOMESADA. We look forward to seeing you. Have a great day.
