M is for Maintenance

By Katherine Salant

In the Steve Martin movie "All of Me," the unspeakable M word is marriage. For many homeowners, it's maintenance. For some, the aversion can be so great they buy a new house, thinking that they're getting this M word out of their lives forever.

Unfortunately, every house requires maintenance, even a brand new one. You won't have to replace big ticket items like a furnace or a roof anytime soon, but to keep your new house looking new, you'll still have the day to day chores like vacuuming. And a few spots on your brand new carpets or counters will take the bloom off these roses in a hurry, so you can't ignore spills.

In the kitchen, you'll have to wipe food off your gorgeous granite counters right away. If you let mustard, red wine, or even cooking oil dry on, you may find a stain, and removing it will be a lot more work than a quick pass with a sponge would have been. You'll have to apply a poultice, a chemical mixed with an absorbent material, to soak out the stain. Depending on what was spilled, common household items such as flour and hydrogen peroxide (this one works for coffee) will do the job. After applying the poultice, you must cover it with a plastic sheet, tape it down, and leave it there for 24 hours. Assuming you got the stain out on the first try, you'll have to reapply a sealer and let it dry for up to six hours. Even if you're vigilant about getting up food spills right away, you'll still have to seal the granite periodically. The sealer does not prevent staining, but it makes them easier to remove.

If the care of a granite countertop leaves you nonplussed, go for a solid surfacing material such as Corian. Because it's not porous like natural stone, stains will sit on the surface and can be removed with elbow grease and a scotch-brite pad. The scrubbed counter area will be dulled, but eventually it will regain its shine and blend in. Some spills such as ink may require an acetone solvent, but all the stains will eventually come out.

If you just have to have the stone look, Corian's Zodiak and Consentino's Silestone, which are made of granite particles mixed with a binder, could be your ticket. These new products do not have a long track record, but countertop fabricator John Murray of Washington, D.C. has installed several thousand Silestone counters and says that so far he hasn't had a problem with staining. When spots have appeared, a scotch brite pad, a household cleaner such as Quick Shine, and occasionally acetone has done the trick.

Plastic laminate counters can stain, sometimes permanently. A paste made of baking soda and water will remove many spots, but any ink-like stain needs acetone. Though many people resist using a household abrasive cleaner such as Comet or Ajax on their laminate counters, Murray recommends a periodic scouring to clean the counter surface.

If you spill something on your new carpeting, you should also respond quickly. Though the carpet fibers may be treated with a stain-resisting chemical, they won't be stain-proof. If you let the spill dry, it will be harder to get out. The best and simplest way to remove a spill is to soak out as much of it as you can with rags. Then flush the spot with clean water, going from the outer edge to the center to keep the stain from spreading. Finally, soak the water out with several clean rags. To remove the remaining moisture, put a clean towel over the spot, weigh it down and leave it overnight. If you still have spots left after this treatment, you should contact a professional carpet cleaner because different staining agents require different treatments. If you apply an over the counter chemical solution to get rid of the spot, it may not do the job. Even worse, it may reduces the effectiveness of a professional carpet cleaner's arsenal.

To keep the new sheen on your carpets, you'll have vacuum them two times a week in heavy traffic areas and clean them regularly. Otherwise, the dirt and sand tracked in on shoes and paws will be ground in, making thousands of microscopic scratches that will eventually make the carpet look worn.

The nifty new equipment that you want may also require maintenance. For example, whirlpool jets for a soaking tub require regular attention so they don't become a health hazard. The pipes or harnesses that recirculate the water from the tub through the jets can becomes a breeding ground for potentially harmful bacteria and mold if they are not cleaned out with a special solution about every two months. In addition, you should have the tub cleaned annually by a professional tub vacuuming company. And never use bath oils in your whirlpool because these can cause the system to malfunction.

The tilt-out windows that make cleaning a breeze should be tilted out at least once a year, even if your never wash them, to vacuum out the tracks and make sure that the weep holes that drain rainwater are not clogged. You also need to make sure that the rollers in the tracks move freely, applying a silicone lubricant if necessary.

A gas fireplace avoids dealing with ashes. But should you get a direct-vent type - the fireplace vents directly out the wall rather than up a chimney - the manufacturers of these units recommend that you get them cleaned yearly by a qualified technician. The firm that supplied the fireplace to the builder should know where to find such a person, if they don't have one on staff.

Hopefully the location of the filter for your furnace and air conditioner will be in a place that is easily accessible and not up in the attic. How often you need to change the filter depends on the type that you get. But, the first four to five months that you live in the house, you should change it every three or four weeks because the house will still be full of construction dust. An electronic air cleaner will be more effective in removing particulate matter from the air than a filter, but the electronic air cleaner still needs periodic cleaning.

The recaulking that you should be doing in your house now will still be needed in your new house, and even more will be required during the first year because of settlement, shrinkage of wood framing and trim, and natural stress cracks that appear in drywall with settlement. In most areas, the recaulking is a cosmetic issue, but not in the kitchen and baths. In these rooms it must be done on a regular basis to prevent water from getting into the walls where it can cause structural damage. With a bathtub, the initial caulking can be affected by the shrinkage of the stud wall behind it and by the combined weight of the water and an occupant (as much as 700 pounds when a large soaking tub is full). Besides the tub area, you may also need to recaulk the shower and sink areas where the back splash meets the wall. In the kitchen you need to recaulk where the back splash meets the wall and around the sink.

You'll have to attend to recaulking on the exterior of your house, but the particulars depend on the materials used, so you must check with your builder.

Copyright 2001-2006 Katherine Salant. Distributed by Inman News Features