7 Home Repairs That Can Break the Bank

As a homeowner, your greatest fear is that some unnoticed issue — a clogged gutter, a cracked foundation or a leaky roof — will snowball into a catastrophic fail that costs you thousands of dollars. Lucky for us, we invested in a home warranty that covers most of the major homeowning headaches, but not all of them. The ceiling leak is paid for, but if something goes wrong with the sewer line or air conditioner unit outside, that's our problem. Our big, expensive problem.

Maintenance is the best way to avoid the most costly home repairs. A few hours on the ladder cleaning out the gutters could save you thousands in foundation repairs. A quick application of sealant on the driveway could buy a few more years before you have to repave the whole thing. We've assembled a list of the 7 most expensive types of home repairs and the best do-it-yourself maintenance tips to avoid breaking the bank.

1: Fixing a Foundation

Water is a killer. It seeps through concrete, settles in basements, sprouts mold and empties wallets. The very worst thing that water can do is weaken your foundation, causing the foundation walls to crack, settle and spread havoc to the rest of the house. The cost of repairing and sealing a busted foundation can start at $10,000 and can go as high as $40,000 [source: Edge].

The best way to avoid this extremely costly repair is to keep water far away from the foundation. When a home is constructed, the ground around the foundation should slope slightly away from the house. If not, rainwater will pool around the foundation and exploit any structural weakness to seep its way into the house. If you see standing water where the house meets the ground, consider applying soil to create the right slope.

Clogged gutters and downspouts are also trouble spots. Make sure that rainwater can flow easily from the roof into the gutters, down the downspouts and away from the house. A simple solution is to add downspout extensions that discharge water 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 meters) from the foundation [source: Edge].

2: Roof Repairs

While you're busy defending your foundation against water damage, don't forget about the roof. Just like the foundation, it is highly susceptible to leaks, rotting or worse. Lost shingles and spot leaks are easy enough to fix for a few hundred dollars, but if the damage is too extensive — or dangerous — you might have to replace the entire roof. That could run you between $3,000 and $12,000, plus the cost of removing the old roofing materials and fixing any damage to the interior of the home [source: HomeAdvisor].

Again, prevention and regular maintenance are key to avoiding costly roof repairs. Make a careful review of your roof at least twice a year, perhaps while you're up there cleaning the gutters. Look for missing shingles, tears and other damage. Also pay close attention to the flashing around the chimney and exhaust vents. Flashing is a metal or plastic sheeting that provides a watertight seal over the cracks between the chimney and the roof surface. If sections of flashing are missing or damaged, they need to be replaced immediately.

If you have an unfinished attic, carefully inspect the wood panels directly under the roof for signs of moisture, mold, algae or active leaks [source: Kirchheimer]. If you have a finished attic, look for signs of water seepage like bubbled paint on the walls or stains on the ceiling. It's better to pay for a quick repair than to let a slow leak turn into a total nightmare.

3: Replace Siding

Sometimes I wonder if it would be cheaper to install a giant retractable umbrella over the entire house rather than deal with the incessant threat of water damage. If your home is partially or fully covered in wood, aluminum or vinyl siding, water can sneak past damaged sections, leading to rot, insect invasions and interior damage. Spot repairs to individual panels of siding usually won't cost more than a couple of hundred dollars, but a full-on replacement of your entire square footage can run on average $10,000 [source: HomeAdvisor].

To protect yourself, do a thorough walk-around of your house every six months, looking for cracks or holes in the siding, plus missing or damaged caulking around windows and doors. Also ensure that all tree branches are a few feet away from the side of the home [source: Kirchheimer]. Nothing can rip off a piece of siding like a storm-tossed branch. Wood siding is much more susceptible to rot and insect damage than aluminum or vinyl, so look closely for pealed paint and pockmarked sections. When you replace a section of siding, first lay down some waterproof polyethylene paper like Tyvek to prevent future leaks.

4: Replacing an HVAC Unit

HVAC stands for heating, ventilation and air conditioning. It's also shorthand for "Here's my Visa and cash." If you don't properly maintain your furnace and air conditioning units, they could require expensive repairs or die altogether. A gas furnace alone costs between $1,000 and $2,000 at Home Depot, but you'll pay between $4,000 and $8,000 for a professional furnace installation [source: HomeAdvisor].

The best way to avoid a furnace or air conditioner failure is to conduct maintenance on your units every six months. An HVAC professional will come to your home and run through a checklist that includes lubricating all moving parts, tightening electrical connections, clearing out the condensate drain in the air conditioner, checking refrigerant level and cleaning any dirty coils or fixtures [source: Energy Star]. Left alone, any of these issues will lower the efficiency of your system and cause premature wear on components.

Another thing you can do to improve the efficiency and longevity of your HVAC system — plus improve air quality in your home — is to replace the air filter at least once every 90 days. You might want to replace it more frequently if you have allergies or pets. The pros recommend the newer high-efficiency pleated filters [source: Trattner].

5: Fixing a Broken Water or Sewer Line

As a homeowner, you never, ever want to see your water or sewer line face to face. If you are staring directly at one of these large pipes — typically buried several feet below your front lawn — then something has gone terribly wrong.

Your water and sewer lines connect your home to the public water and sewage systems (assuming you don't have your own septic tank). Your city or town's liability for the system ends at the street; homeowners are responsible for the length of pipe underneath their property. The cost of physically repairing or replacing a broken water or sewage line isn't going to break the bank — somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000. What's really going to cost you is cleaning up the mess [source: HomeAdvisor].

When a main water line breaks, it creates an underground flood that seeps up to your lawn, creating huge marsh-like puddles. To get to the source of the leak, crews will have to excavate into your lawn and possibly under trees and driveways. After you pay for repairing the water line, you'll pay to replace the section of driveway and re-landscape the lawn, another several thousand dollars literally down the drain.

If you own an old house, it's smart to carry water and sewer line insurance and to have your lines inspected annually for any signs of leaks or cracks. Also, check with the water and sewage utility company before digging deep into your lawn for a landscaping or home improvement project [source: HomeAdvisor]. You'd hate to crack that pipe yourself.

6: Replacing a Deck

A wooden deck adds value to your home and provides the perfect setting for summer cookouts. But if you fall behind on routine maintenance, your deck could fall prey to rot or fall apart completely. The cost of maintaining a deck is less than $100 a year, but the average cost of replacing it from the ground up is $7,000 to $10,000 [source: HomeAdvisor].

The first step to maintaining a healthy deck is to keep it clean. In the spring, clear out all leaves and twigs from between the floorboards and scrub down every wood surface with a purchased deck cleaning solution or a homemade mix of bleach and water. Once the deck dries, either apply a wood stain to refresh the color, or go straight to the sealant. Sealant is what keeps moisture out of your wood and prevents rot [source: Toht].

At least once a year, conduct a full inspection for any sign of rot. Use a screwdriver and poke the wood gently to find soft spots. (If you can push the screwdriver more than a 1/4 inch or 6 millimeters into the wood, you have rot). Pay particular attention to the support posts and joists beneath the deck. Inspect the bottom few inches of support posts where they meet the ground and come into contact with water. If you find anything that doesn't look right, call in a carpenter to take a look [source: Toht].

7: Replacing a Driveway

Asphalt driveways take a beating. Not only must they withstand the weight of large vehicles, but they must suffer through the seasons: cold and ice in the winter and extreme heat and rain in the summer and spring. It's no surprise that asphalt driveways are prone to cracking and crumbling if left unprotected. The average cost of installing a brand-new driveway is around $5,000, but don't forget the added expense of digging up and hauling away the old one [source: HomeAdvisor].

The best way to preserve your asphalt driveway is to keep it sealed against the elements. When the weather is hot and dry, give the driveway a good scrub with a mild mixture of warm water and laundry detergent. Once it's dry, apply a layer of driveway sealer. You'll need a special squeegee to spread the sealer evenly. Don't drive on the driveway for 24 to 48 hours until the sealer has a chance to cure [source: Lowes].

Click here to view the original article: 7 Home Repairs That Can Break the Bank