How to Maintain Your Home with Anthony Martin

How to Maintain Your Home with Anthony Martin of A.T.Martin Home Inspections

Anthony shares many important tips about how to maintain your home and what to do before putting it on the market.

Here is some great advice to keep in mind:

1)      Pay particular attention to any moisture intrusion which can cause mold issues and energy efficiency concerns.

2)      Check your drainage –make sure that your downspout system diverts water away from the house; make sure gutters and downspouts are clear (flush it out with a garden hose to remove any blockage).

3)      Walk around your house and look for anything that might need repair; take care of repairs sooner rather than later because what you may consider minor and defer maintenance on could end up costing you money in the long run.

4)      Maintain caulk and paint around trim surrounding doors and windows.

5)      Get a home inspection prior to buying a house so you know exactly what the house has to offer (good or bad); this will ultimately save you money.

6)      Sellers should always get a home inspection prior to selling a house so that they have time to make repairs (on your own terms) and use the report and repairs made to your advantage in your marketing efforts.

7)      If you buy a brand new construction home it would be advisable to get a home inspection to ensure that the builders didn’t miss anything. Keep in mind builders are trying to finish a house as fast as possible and there is a good chance that details are overlooked. A home inspection can help identify problems early so that the builder can make necessary repairs at their expense, not yours.

AFCI, The Shocking Truth!

AFCIs were developed in response to a need for equipment to sense when an arc fault was occurring.
Studies of building fires had attributed many electrical faults to an arcing type, which were igniting flammable materials within the building structure.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) asked the electrical industry to look at a technical solution to the issue of preventing fires by tripping circuits which were exhibiting power fluctuations due to arc faults.

AFCIs are able to detect faults as low as 5 amps (peak) for series arcs, and for 75 amps (peak) for parallel arcs.  They can also detect arcing caused by faults, such as dead-shorts due to nails and screws through conductors, and arcing due to lose connections anywhere in the circuit.


Now that I’ve laid the ‘ground work’ for you, I want to tell you about my first hand experience with Arc Fault Circuit Interrupters. My house was built less than two years ago, and my wife went to pull the ceiling fan chain last night and the fan quit working. I noticed immediately that the alarm clock light went out. So I headed to the basement to check the breaker. As I suspected, it was tripped, so I reset it and it tripped again. Okay, so now I realized it was time for the flashlight and time to check out the ceiling fan. To my surprise one of the light bulbs had come unscrewed a bit, and the metal pull chain for the fan was against the metal threads on the bulb. At the moment my wife pulled the fan chain the AFCI tripped the circuit, and thanks to the AFCI device my wife did not get the shock of her life! Furthermore, if this circuit had not been interrupted, and the ceiling fan was on and no one was at home, it could have started a fire. 

For more information on Atlanta Home Inspections, contact Anthony Martin.