Gutters, paint, roof, walls, and pools – important seasonal home maintenance is often forgotten until the very first drop of rain (and that annoying new leak)

When you think of winter weekends, you think of thick blankets and warm fires. What you don’t think of is home maintenance, repairs and doing a basic service on essential things around the home. This is exactly what Kandua.com found too – when it comes to roofing, gutters, and waterproofing, eighty per cent of South Africans only pay attention to essential home maintenance when it’s too late. For those north of Cape Town, spring isn’t just the turn of the season, it’s the number of leaks that have appeared after the first rain. If waterproofing, painting and roof and gutter maintenance aren’t done before the rainy season – leaks and damp spots spring up all over the house.

According to Kandua, May, June and July are incredibly quiet when it comes to roofers, gutter specialists, and water proofers, with less than twenty percent of these requests being posted during this period.  However, this is exactly when you should be focusing on essential home maintenance such as waterproofing the roof and walls, checking for leaks, and ageing tiles, and emptying your gutters after the trees have shed their weight. When the first rain hits in spring, outside of the Western Cape, the dry season will have created cracks or opened new holes that will immediately damage your home and walls.

In fact, for those who suddenly woke up in September, October, and November – Kandua saw a dramatic spike to nearly seventy percent in September alone – there may have been a few extra expensive surprises that came along with the rain. Because the problem with delaying maintenance is that one problem can cascade into ten more and this gets expensive and frustrating.

While procrastinating under a pile of blankets is the easiest thing to do in the middle of winter, the cost to your bank balance actually goes up if you leave things to the last minute. Plumbing is especially important to maintain and check, particularly in cold snap, as water comes into the house cold and this can break the pipes, especially if they’re old. If you are worried, call in a plumber before the cold front hits so they can check your pipes and make sure everything is in perfect condition.

Another money muncher is the roof. In summer it is pelted with hail, rain, and heat. Your roof tiles endure constant temperature changes, and this causes ongoing damage. Do not put it off. For Capetonians, summer is the perfect time to hire a skilled roofer to check every corner and crevice for leaks, cracks, missing tiles, and potential problems. The rest of the country should use the dry winter season to do the same. This not only makes sure your roof is ready for the first rain, but it allows any repairs or painting to dry completely. Make use of this time to check your gutters for any debris or blockages as these cannot just block water from flowing, putting you at risk of leaks and dampness, but the weight can crack the gutters or damage your roof.

If you have the budget, winter is also an excellent time to paint the house. You give your walls time to dry before the rain and you’re protecting the walls from weathering which will add resale value and save you money in the long run.

Then, there is the garden. Looking at the data from Kandua.com tree fellers are most in demand in October, March, and April – which coincides with what is usually the first and last big storms of the summer season. Falling trees can cause considerable damage to your house, walls and garden so don’t wait – get a skilled professional to come in and check your trees before the storms.

Finally, there’s the pool. Dirty? Old paint? Walls covered in green slime? Pool maintenance is best done in winter when the lack of heat and rain makes it far easier for pool maintenance specialists to store the water from the pool before painting and repairing any cracks. Unfortunately, most South Africans tend to forget about their pool until it may be too late – requests go up as the mercury rises, with a mere ten percent of pool specialists being requested during winter.

So, in 2024, instead of waiting for that first drop of rain, find skilled pros who can step up and help you keep your home in perfect condition. No need to stress if you can’t clamber over the roof or don’t know how to waterproof, paint, roof, or tile – just find a pro through Kandua.com.    

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About Kandua

The Kandua Company helps small service businesses grow. We connect them to new customers, and we take the sweat out of business management with easy-to-use tech tools.

Our mission is to use tech to shorten the distance between having a skill and making a living from it: helping the people who help us every day.

Kandua.com is South Africa’s #1 online marketplace for home services. Every month, over 40 000 rated home service pros have access to around R50 million worth of work opportunities from individual customers, and access to business customers through Kandua’s partnerships with leaders in insurance and retail. The Kandua for Pros app puts a head office in the palm of every pro’s hand: send professional quotes and invoices, accept card and online payments, keep track of customer communication, and get visibility of business performance, all from a mobile phone, and all safely stored in the cloud.