Home DIY & upkeep
Small weekend jobs that protect your home's value — and the ones that make it sell faster.
Blocked gutters push water back into the roof line and rot fascia boards. Clear leaves twice a year, flush with a hose and check every downpipe runs free. In Cape Town do it in April; on the Highveld do it in September.
A tide mark about a metre up an internal wall with bubbling paint is rising damp, not condensation. Painting over it hides it for one winter and costs you double later. Get the damp-proof course checked before it reaches the skirting.
Lift the temperature and pressure valve lever briefly once a year so it doesn't seize. If it leaks continuously afterwards, replace it — a seized valve is how geysers burst through ceilings.
Sweep kiln-dried sand into the joints, then apply a penetrating sealer on a dry weekend. It stops weeds, locks the pavers and brings the colour back for about a fifth of the cost of relaying.
Cut out the old bead, clean with methylated spirits, run new mould-resistant sanitary silicone and smooth it with a wet finger. Ten minutes per bath, and it stops water tracking into the screed.
Buyers read space, not styling. Remove a third of the furniture, clear every countertop and take family photos off the walls. It is the cheapest thing you can do and it changes the photographs more than paint does.
The first ten seconds of a viewing happen outside. Sand and repaint the door, oil the gate motor, replace a faded house number and trim the verge. Under a thousand rand of work that shifts the whole first impression.
Warm off-whites photograph better than stark white and hide wear. Paint feature walls back to neutral and keep the colour in soft furnishings you'll take with you.
Electrical, gas, electric fence, plumbing in Cape Town and beetle in coastal areas. Arranging them before you accept an offer means repairs don't hold up your transfer date.
Mixed colour temperatures make rooms look grubby in photos. One box of 2700K globes throughout gives an instantly more expensive feel.
New handles and a good clean of the cupboard fronts read as a refreshed kitchen at roughly 2% of the cost of replacing it.
Crisp edges and fresh bark chips make an average garden look maintained. Do it the morning of a show day, not the week before.
Structural cracks, roof trusses, retaining walls and anything load-bearing need a registered professional — not a YouTube tutorial.
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