Spring Flings For Your Properties

BY PETE YOUNGS   A.K.A MR. REHAB

Part 1 : Yearly tasks to cut maintenance costs on your investment and personal property
 
 

When the warmer weather starts to come around, it’s time to get a few things going on around the house. The cold weather and elements have taken a season of toll on your roofs, decks, paint, landscape and flowers. I am putting together a series of articles that will drastically cut costs on your investment properties as well as your own. This article will help your painted exteriors last up to ten years or so, if you do this once a year.

Here are a few tips that I do to my properties when the sun comes out to play.
 
First, I pressure wash the outside of the house to get rid of dirt, mold and mildew. Starting with the roof, I stand on a ladder and spray chemical on the roof (bleach or a commercial cleaner). Do not spray chemicals on the roof when you are on the roof, you will slide off. After the roof dries, I can then get on it and rinse with water only from the washer. You can rent a pressure washer for about $65.00 a day. To save money, rent from a tool rental place on Saturday. Most rental places are closed on Sunday, so you actually get a free day because you don’t have to return it till Monday morning. You may also split the cost with a neighbor for the rental. With an extra day, and a friend to split the cost with, you save double time.
 
 Next I pressure wash the gutters to get all the built up debris out. This will make your gutters last longer by removing all the wet muck that stays in even after someone cleans your gutters. After the gutters, start cleaning the siding and exterior surfaces of the house. I leave the bleach (or cleaner) on for about 10 minutes each side before rinsing with plain water. As you can tell, I am cleaning the house starting at the top and working my way down. Be careful spraying directly at the windows, as they may not be shut tight and water or cleaner could drip into the house.
 
Your next job is to wash the decks and rails. As long as you are about 12 inches away from a surface, you will only clean it, but if you want to remove flaking paint, you must get the pressure tip closer than 12 inches to remove flaking paint debris. When washing the decks, fences and steps, if the dirt build up is significant, I will use a medium pressure tip (40 degree) to sort of sweep the dirt off the surface. Then I will put in the highest-pressure tip (15 degree) and staying more than 12 inches from the surface, I will blast it clean. Doing the decks and fences tends to get a lot of wetness around and under the structures not only splashing bushes, but also the grass. Not to worry because your pressure washer automatically mixes the chemical and water at a 50/50 rate so it will harm small flowering plants, it will not hurt your grass or bushes at this diluted state.
 
The last items to be washed for great curb appeal and a neat appearance are the driveway and walkways of the property. The best way to do this is to use an attachment called a “hydra-scrub.” Anyone who has ever cleaned a driveway the old fashioned way (with the regular wand of a pressure washer) knows that you clean about 6 inches by 3 feet at a time, taking hours, leaving streaks and causing a backache. But a nice white driveway looks great and is a great inexpensive improvement. The hydra-scrub attachment hooks up where the wand does, and is a 20-inch round object on handlebars and has a spinning action that cleans the driveway. It looks just like a floor buffer that the janitor uses to buff floors in buildings, schools and such. It does not use any chemicals, just water pressure. To get the driveway looking its best, clean it with the hydra-scrub to remove all the dirt from the porous concrete. It’s just like mowing the grass. You walk slowly across the driveway cleaning a 20-inch wide area each pass. If you feel you are leaving streaks, then slow your pace down and the streaks will not appear. After I do the entire driveway, I then attach the wand back to the washer and use the chemical tip to saturate the driveway with cleaner or bleach. As before, the machine mixes a 50/50 content that will not harm the grass as it spills over the edge of the driveway. Now just let it evaporate and your driveway will become whiter and brighter as id dries,
 
This entire process can be done in just a few hours or a leisurely afternoon. The cost is under $100 with the rental of the washer, the hydra-scrub and the bleach or other cleaner used. I do this once a year to my properties and my paint jobs last almost twice as long…some 10 years or more. Now that’s a good return on investment. Not only that, but my tenants see that I am taking care of the house, so they also seem to do more on their part too. Keep in mind that earlier I said to rent from a tool rental store on Saturday morning and you don’t have to return the equipment till Monday morning. This only works at real tool rental places that close on Sundays. It does not work at the big hardware depots or chains, as they are open on Sundays.
 
I hope you got some great maintenance tips and money saving ideas from this article and watch REIP magazine for the continuation of this line of articles from me. Also, check into ordering some of the back issues of REIP mag as I have written many popular articles that people comment to me about as I speak around the country on my Rehab 101 system. For more info on Rehab 101 and Mr. Rehab, come visit us January 16th at NYREIA’s Monthly Event at H.V.C.C. and don’t forget to sign up for my all day workshop Rehabbing For Gold on January 20th also at H.V.C.C.