Flying bugs.  When the weather warms up, all the world starts beating its wings in anticipation of new life.  Locally, termites will take flight to start new colonies as well as the ant population.  What freaks people out is to come into a room one morning and find thousands of insects on the window sills.  “Where did they all come from?”  Termites will cut a hole about the size of the tip of a pencil in a wall and stream out flying blindly towards a light source–most often the windows.  It is a good idea to capture some of these winged creatures and put them in a sandwich baggie for further examination by a professional–are they termites or ants?  Obviously, if they are termites the potential damage in the wall is a concern.

Conditioned Air.  A good air conditioning check-up prior to the hot summer months is a good idea.  Who knows if freon leaked from the unit over the winter or what kind of vegetation wormed its way into the heat pump.  The homeowner can pull back and cut any vines, clean up any leaves and debris around any of the air conditioning / heating units.  Go inside and change out the filters in the returns throughout the house.  Make sure that any of the units are fully accessible for the technican.  Check the vents to make sure that they are open and unblocked.

Painted Surfaces.  Normal wear and tear on a painted surface–if properly painted is normal.  Sadly, unless you paid the original builder and extra premium for painting a new house, more then likely the paint job was for the appeal rather then a serious effort at protecting the wood.  It is common to see new homes being built with pre-primed wood.  In many cases the primed wood might only be meant to protect the wood while it is being installed.  Most times the finish coat goes directly over this basic primed wood.  Over time, sometimes as little as a year, the paint begins to peel or fade.  If the homeowner decides to forestall a full repaint of the house, then there are ways to spot prime and finish and makes sure that the new paint blends in with the old.  First find a good solvent based primer for exterior surfaces–it will dry dead flat–then take a paint chip to the paint store and get a color match.  If the existing paint has lost it sheen then either use a flat paint or most an eggshell.  Now that you have a match on the sheen brush the finish coat from break to break, i.e. from one cut in the wood to another.  This way the newly painted surfaces will reflect light different from its surrounding older neighbors and the “touch up” will not be noticeable.

Even though more expensive paints can do a better job–Aura, Pro Classic, Duration–it depends alot on the application and the purpose of the paint.  If I was doing exterior painting and I had finished my prep–washing the painted surface, patching, caulking, then I would probably plan on priming all the painted surfaces with a latex or oil-based primer even if I planned on using a “self-priming” finish paint.  In my experience the self priming paints go on thicker–they are essentially a primer and finish paint rolled into one.  The tendency is for the paint to be harder to apply, but the end result is 2 coats of finish paint which is always considered better then one.

If your hiring a painter, question the contractor on the paint being used.  If it takes 80 hours to paint the exterior of a house and 4 gallons of paint, will it really make that much difference in the total price if the paint costs $50 per gallon rather then $25 per gallon?  If the paint job lasts longer, isn’t that really what you are paying for?  Know your paints and keep your house looking like a home.