Exterior hardware often flies under the radar during routine home inspections. Door handles, window tracks, hinges, garage door springs, they all tend to get ignored because, well, they work. Until they don’t.
While a loose storm door handle or a broken garage door spring won’t usually qualify as a home emergency, they’ll almost certainly interrupt your day at the most inconvenient moment. Funny how these things never seem to break when you actually have time to deal with them.
If you’d rather stay one step ahead of surprise repairs, it’s worth giving these often-overlooked components a quick check during your next home inspection. A few minutes of preventive maintenance today can save you from an unexpected DIY project tomorrow.
To help you stay one step ahead, here’s a list of four things to check on your next home inspection.
1. Garage Door Torsion Springs and Cables
If you have an electric garage door opener, you’re probably not even thinking about the heavy-duty springs and high-tension cables doing all the work in the background. But you should, because they’re the unsung heroes behind your smooth-gliding garage door.
Torsion springs are typically rated for around 10,000 open-and-close cycles before metal fatigue sets in. When a spring finally gives out, it doesn’t go quietly; it can snap with a loud bang that’s startling enough to make you think something exploded in the garage. And yes, it most likely happened during the night.
Without the spring supporting its weight, a garage door weighing anywhere from 150 to 300 pounds can slam shut, damage the opener, trap your car inside, or crush anything unfortunate enough to be underneath.
2. Exterior Door Hardware Elements
Most exterior door hinges and strike plates come with tiny 1-inch screws. They do the job when the door is first installed, but over time, all that opening, closing, and shifting takes its toll. Eventually, those little screws can loosen, causing the door to sag and throwing off deadbolt alignment.
Storm door handles should also be on your list. Because we touch them multiple times a day, we subconsciously assume they are fine, until the door suddenly refuses to latch or gets ripped open by a gust of wind.
The good news is that a storm door handle replacement is a 10-minute DIY project. The same with the screws: buy some heavy-duty screws that reach deep into the heavy wood framing of your house and replace the factory-standard ones.
3. Window Hardware
Proper property maintenance includes checking doors and windows, but it’s easy to overlook the elements you don’t even know are there. For instance, vinyl and aluminum windows have small exterior slots (weep holes) at the bottom of the frame, often covered by tiny flap hardware that lets water out while keeping bugs from coming inside.
But, in time, debris, insects, and dirt clog these delicate mechanisms, so when heavy rain hits, water cannot drain outward. Instead, it fills the interior track and overflows back into the drywall and wall cavities, causing invisible rot and mold growth within the framing.
4. Gate Latches and Heavy-Duty Hinges
When was the last time you checked your gate’s hardware? These elements are always exposed to the elements, so they need constant care, such as lubrication or tightening.
Once a standard latch fails to align, a windstorm will likely rip the hinges out of the post entirely, splintering the structural wood. When this happens, you’ll have a costlier, more troublesome repair on your hands than a simple hinge replacement.
Maintenance is About the Details
Your home is constantly fighting off the elements to keep you safe and cozy. But nothing lasts forever. To keep enjoying your wonderful home life, make sure to stay up to date with maintenance, and always pay attention to the elements that seem insignificant.
