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One of the downsides to being a homeowner is needing to foot the bill for expensive home repairs. Home repairs can come in the form of a leaky roof, a cracked foundation, or any plumbing issues in general. However, some of them can break your bank if the situation worsens and this is exactly why the adage “a stitch in time saves nine” rings true. There are two important things to prevent this: regular maintenance and actually spotting the issue before it exacerbates into a major headache.

Home repairs can be expensive when they have not been taken care of over a long period of time. The longer you delay fixing something in your home, the more expensive it will become. Not to mention, you need to find the right technician/plumber/handyman to do the job for you. To prevent a serious financial damage, you need to regularly maintain your home’s various systems and fix issues immediately when they arise.

Here are 3 issues infamous for creeping up when you least suspect it:

1. Foundation Issues

Water will weaken or break your home foundation. This should be a red alert for Malaysians since it rains every other day here. Water disrupts your home as it flows through the concrete, basements, and empty spaces, causing your foundation to crack and spread havoc to the rest of your home. Cracks are created by drying shrinkage, thermal movement, and other causes. When the crack is minor, they would not cause any problems. However, minor cracks will grow larger over time and can lead not only to irreplaceable damage but to an unsafe structure. The best way to avoid this costly repair is by keeping water away as far as you can from the foundation.

If you’re looking at building your house from the ground up, you need to make sure that the ground around the foundation area should slope slightly away from your home to prevent rain water from pooling around the foundation and weakening your foundation’s structure. This should affect house buyers from reputable developers as well since Malaysian homeowners tend to add a concrete porch in front as part of their renovation efforts.

Repair the cracks immediately and get help from the professionals. You would not want to end up spending thousands more when it becomes unmanageable. Remember, always maintain your home in its tip-top shape! You might just want to sell your house someday and foundation issues will make your home difficult or impossible to resell.

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 2. Water Damage in the Bathroom

The bathroom is another place where people let water go unchecked. Often people spot gaps appearing between the walls and the bathtub or between the walls and the sink for example but they tend to ignore them. What happens next is it will mold and water will rot under the surface and chew through the shower pan. This will damage the shower function and you will have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to get it replaced. To avoid this, as homeowners, you should check your bathroom regularly. You need to check for gaps in the caulking around the shower or the tub as well as check for any missing grout. Use silicone caulk in your bathroom to keep water and moisture away from surfaces with cracks and crevices where mold or mildew could potentially develop.

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3. Treating Termites

It can be devastating when termites go unnoticed and unchecked. Termites destroy clothes, books, wood panels, and eventually entire homes. It is a common issue in many houses in Klang Valley and homeowners are engaging pest control companies to treat their homes, costing them thousands of ringgit.

Termites usually gain entrance into building through cracks and crevices, following the electrical or pipeline system. They live in colonies and the nests are usually located underground, around woods or trees. When they go unnoticed for a long time, it will create a structural damage that can cost a fortune. It is vital to do an annual termite patrol at your home. It does not cost a lot money to get a professional for termite checks rather than having to pay for the casualties later on. Even when your affected neighbor’s house has been treated, bet your bottom dollar that the termites will still make their way into your house sooner or later; therefore, It is advisable to join forces with your neighbors to get your houses treated. See this infographic from the Pest
Control Association of Malaysia.

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Can you share some of your home repairs experience that you think costs more than you expected?

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One of my apartment was attacked by termites. Basically all the wooden components (floor parquet, door frames, wooden door, window frames and kitchen cabinets) were damaged and need to be replaced.
One thing for sure u must do when u want to do repairs is to get a few quotations from different contractors. You know what ... with the same brief/requirements, 3 different contractors gave me 3 different prices - 10K, 18K and 22K ????

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@ppnnkk2011, this is so expensive !! but nowaday really very hard to find reliable contractor >.<

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@ppnnkk2011 yes, you definitely need to get a few quotations to compare.. we certainly do not want people to charge us more than it should be. what a difference.. 10K and 22K.. did u find out any difference on the service they provide??

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@virspirit yes, when the termites problem goes out of control, it can costs a fortune. I suggest you can visit our website to get quotes from our reliable vendors :) we have many categories: cleaners, movers, contractors, interior designers, etc! give it a try when you need it!

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We had termites attack before and since then, we use Rentokil and they come every twice a year for maintenance. But apparently, friends told me that Rentokil is so much more expensive compared to other service provider. Not sure if it's true.

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@kaodim, do you have part-time cleaners but fixed on twice a week basis. Say if we want cleaners for 2 - 4 hours every Monday and Friday?

Because sometimes all these part-time cleaners, they don't give you a fix time, sometimes they cancel on you because they have other clients, then you'll have to change to another day. Do you have a reliable one to recommend?

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Been through both termite and water damages before and trust me when I say it is the worst possible thing that could ever happen! The water damage to my house caused an electrical short circuit that cut the current to both my dry and wet kitchen and bathroom. This is was done by some half past 6 contractor who managed to squeeze 10k from me just to fix the piping work, only for it to cause the same problem again 2 years later!

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@HJ I see. How much does Rentokil charges you for maintenance work? Can you elaborate more on their services? We also have reliable pest control service providers :) although it is very limited, you can give it a try when u need one

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@Mag Hi Mag, unfortunately our vendors does not provide "permanent" part time cleaners. I suggest you can try submitting a job request for part-time cleaners, and get in touch with the vendors that you like. Maybe you can discuss with them about the weekly schedule. But the usual case, our vendors have their own schedules to attend that changes every week. Hope this helps :) we have tons of reliable cleaners on our platform!

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@andrea yes Andrea! I think everyone who have been through it can relate with you. After doing our research, water is a killer to the house. It really gets in our nerves and not to mention the skyrocketing cost to deal with it.

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@kaodim, we are paying about RM500 - 600 per year for 4 times maintenance. They will be spraying termites poison all over your house and also they are always on call, just in case if you need them with no extra charge. For example, if you have a dead rat on your attic, they will remove it with no charge.

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@kaodim, Thanks for your advise. Will check our your website and send in my request soon!

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@HJ From observations of our pest control service providers' past quotes, they seem to charge around RM90 - RM120 per visit for a general pest control service. Some of them also provide packages with 6 visits annually for RM600. But of course, the quote will depend on the size of affected area as well as the kind of treatment deemed required. I can say that the average price seems to be cheaper than Rentokil and our vendors are reliable too :)

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@Mag you're welcome, Mag! Let us know if you have any more questions and we will get back to you as soon as possible :)