House owners: what do you budget for home maintenance?

ThePants999

I appreciate that different people are in different situations, and different houses will cost different amounts to maintain, but I'm nonetheless interested in hearing how much people set aside, or spend on average, on maintaining their house. (Everything from getting the windows cleaned, to periodic redecorating, to contingency fund for broken boiler / sudden need for building/roofing/etc work.)

theartfullodger

Oh, the standard £756:34 pa.

AnotherJoe

It should just come out of your generic contingency budget which many say should be about be six months net income.

moneyistooshorttomention

I would agree, in principle, with budgeting for house maintenance.

But, in practice, I've never done it yet - as first I was still doing renovation work on the last house and then I moved onto doing renovation work on my current house.

So maintenance work tends to get just "lumped in" as "Money going on the house - darn it!".

The plan is to allocate a certain amount of maintenance work money each year - once I've finished renovating this house in the first place (but it could be literally years yet to get to that stage - as it will cost so much:().

There is an element too of how well work has been done on the house in the first place. For instance, in my current house, I had the bathroom totally gutted. Now - I had the new plaster painted when I was told it would be okay to. I also had the lino put on floor when I was told the fresh concrete part of floor would have dried. I was told wrongly on both counts by the firm concerned:mad::mad::mad:. So - thanks to them - it looks as if the bathroom needs decorating again already (though only done a couple of years ago). Also - thanks to them - it looks as if I will need to buy new floor covering (though only done a couple of years ago). Moral of story being - Blimmin' Wotsit Expletive Deleted workmen may end up causing you to have to do "maintenance" work rather sooner than is reasonable.

DRP

I just put what I can into savings*.

Planned and unplanned spending has to come from that...




*it is quite possible that i am doing it wrong

hazyjo

I'm really not the person to take advice from!


I try not to be overdrawn (...much!) and pay for things as and when needed, and then pay them off if it puts me more overdrawn.


Oops.


My OH does general bits and pieces - he's very handy around the house. Done nearly all the decorating and basic repairs. We did have to get someone in to look at the boiler earlier this year but it wasn't mega pricey, and we would like to get the front fence/gate/gateposts replaced (quote for £420) so it's on the to do list.


I get bonuses twice a year, and mum gives me a chunk every Christmas so I just think things can wait until then!


I'm a rubbish saver.


Jx

Hoploz

Its impossible to set a budget. You can jolly along for months with no problems, all plain sailing, then all of a sudden the loo starts leaking, right at the same time as the lawnmower needs replacing, and he following week the washing machine goes up the spout. Then nothing for a year. Bad luck normally happens in threes!

Regular maintenance ... Well I gave up using a window cleaner when it was going to cost me £50 a time. I've paid anything between £15-25 before but then they all started upgrading to these clean water system thingies and suddenly they need more equipment than a bucket ... Bang, up goes the price. I haven't cleaned my upstairs windows since I replaced them last September, and I do downstairs myself. We do our own gutters as its easy in our chalet bungalow. Gardening, I could have someone full time at £15 an hour on my huge plot but instead I do it myself. Plumbing breakdowns, hit and miss, spent £300 in first three months after moving in, since then no probs. We have cleared our own drains with a set of £15 rods, rather than get Dynorod in at stupid prices.

Basically it depends on the size of the house, and what condition everything's in. If its all new then you should have very low costs. But if not, it'll be more.

SailorSam

I do most of the everyday maintenance myself, and try to keep on top of it. So i don't think it's that much.

TheGardener

I asked a similar question some time ago and got a number of helpful and not so helpful suggestions
Anyway - I budgeted £100 per month in savings and hope that should keep me on track to maintain a 1950's 3 bed semi in reasonable condition and deal with the odd disaster if one comes along.
The old adage about a 'stich in time saves nine' is definitely true and prompt action on things like blocked gutters or worn out bath sealant will save a small fortune. My boiler is 3 years old so I'm budgeting for another 10 years life in that and I know the DG windows are ok just now but doubt they will see another 10 years out....all of a sudden £1,200 pa doesn't seem such a lot :eek:

cloo

I don't have a budget as such, but I generally try to have at least £5k in savings, which I consider in part to cover maintenance emergencies.