The WoW Style

Structural soundness is an important element of maintaining a well-functioning home. Chances are, you already know this. What you may not know is the fact that a structurally sound home is materially important for families that have kids. As a mum, you may not know that maintaining your home’s structure is a genuinely crucial part of keeping yourself and your family safe.

A structurally sound home will ensure more safety for yourself and your family. Even if you don’t realize it, the structural integrity of your home has a staggering impact on the health and safety of the residents. With this home health checklist, you can more thoroughly understand why structural soundness is so important for your family.

Home Health Checklist Created By: JES

Foundation Health

Your home’s foundation is what keeps it standing up. The foundation could be in the basement or above the crawl space; either way, it’s the cornerstone of your home’s structure. Any damage in the foundation has an adverse impact on the rest of the home. That’s why it’s so crucial to maintain the home’s foundation. Otherwise, you could end up with some of these serious problems:

• Irreversible Home Damage
• Home Value Lessening
• Cracks in Concrete
• Uneven Floors
• Nail Pops
• Eventual Foundation Failure

No home wants to deal with these problems, but especially not homes with children. Plus, foundation health problems negatively impact your home’s value, which can be devastating for families with children. If you’re a young family and you’re still paying off your home, the last thing you want to learn is that you’re dealing with potentially seriously impactful foundation concerns. Because of their potential for lasting harm, especially for children, it’s important that you fix them as soon as possible.

Basement Health

If you have a basement, you want to make sure it’s safe. This is even true if you don’t allow your children to go into the basement. Remember, the basement shares a lot of its air with the rest of your home, which is why you need to maintain its health. The health of the basement has a measured impact on the health of the rest of your home. You may have any of these problems in a basement that isn’t well-kept:

• Wet Walls
• Wet Floors
• Wet Carpet
• Musty Basement Smell
• General Moisture Problems
• Mould
• Allergies Worsening
• Asthma Worsening
• No Protection From Weather Events

These aren’t just problems that will stay in the basement, either. Especially when it comes to problems like mold and moisture, you’ll have those problems throughout the entirety of your home, not just the basement. Because the basement shares so much of its air with the rest of the home, it’s easy for the basement’s problems to become the rest of the home’s problems at the drop of a hat. Although these problems can impact anyone, they can have an even more profound impact on children, which is why it’s so important for families to pay close attention to them.

Crawl Space Health

Your home may have a crawl space even if it doesn’t have a basement. Many homes have crawl spaces because of their ease of use, especially because it allows for more home access. Crawl spaces provide a great option for experts to inspect otherwise inaccessible areas of the home, but they can also lead to problems like these:

• High Indoor Humidity
• Rodent Problems
• Bug Problems
• High Electric Bills
• Bouncy Floor Joists
• Mould
• Mildew
• Poor Air Quality
• Rodent-Borne Disease

None of these things are good for anyone, but they’re especially bad for children. When it comes to problems like mould and mildew, you may end up with worsening allergies and asthma. That can be especially devastating for many children because their lungs typically aren’t as well-formed as adults’ lungs, making them more susceptible to lung problems. Crawl space health is essential to maintaining your family’s health, which is a main reason to tackle it early.

General Concrete Health

You almost certainly have concrete slabs in multiple areas in and around your home. For example, you might have concrete on your driveway, in sidewalks around the home, around your pool deck, and many other places. Many people don’t think about the health of that concrete, often allowing it to fall into disrepair. However, problems with that concrete can lead to secondary concerns, including any of these:

• Tripping
• Falling
• Foundation Problems
• Injuries
• Slipping Around Pools

As you can see, broken concrete is a serious problem. Not only can it cause surface-level concerns, but it can also get underneath your home’s foundation and cause more sinister problems throughout. It’s not just something that you can brush off, regardless of who’s living in the home. However, especially when it comes to trips and falls, you want to be especially careful when there are kids in the house. They’re more likely to trip and fall, and they may be more likely to get injuries from those trips.

Conclusion

Home structural maintenance is important for everyone and anyone to consider. It’s not just important for families with kids or families without kids. No matter who’s living in your home or who you plan to be living in your home in the future, you should always make sure you have a strong, effective home structure. Of course, families with kids tend to have the most concerns about home structural maintenance, which is why it’s common for those homes to adhere to stricter structural fixes.

Remember that the home structure informs everything around it. That includes the actual foundation, the crawl space, the basement, and even elements around the rest of the home. It’s important to make sure you have a strong grip on the home structure in general, especially because a low-quality home structure can have a negative impact on the rest of your home. If you have any concerns about your structure, never be afraid to call in a home repair expert.