The Hidden Home Maintenance Risks of Hosting Visiting Family All Summer

Summer is a time for relaxing, enjoying the good weather, and creating memories with family and friends. It also often translates to opening their homes to extended family for weeks or even months on end, for many homeowners. Though the promise of food, late-night chat and bonding is enticing, an influx of guests has a dramatic effect on your home’s balance. 

Your home’s plumbing systems are suddenly under extra stress when you suddenly go from a few people to twice or three times that number overnight. All of a sudden, systems intended for a standard family size are being tested to their absolute limits! Whether it’s the hidden stresses that can build up in the structure or hidden expenses in utilities, there are significant home maintenance risks that most hosting owners don’t factor in until something goes wrong. Knowing these weaknesses can save you money on your home, and prevent the big repair bill at the end of your summer reunion. 

Overworked HVAC System: Keeping Everyone Cool

In the hottest part of summer, your heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system is already under pressure from high outdoor temperatures. The addition of multiple other bodies to the home exacerbates this stress drastically. Everyone in the house produces body heat and moisture from their breath, forcing your air conditioner to run harder in order to keep the humidity in your home at a comfortable level. 

High occupancy time can pose hazards to your cooling system, such as: 

• Accelerated Filter Clogging: More people = more skin flakes, hair, lint and dust flying around the rooms, which equals accelerated filter clogging. This buildup is much greater than the normal build-up that occurs every 3 months, and air filters get clogged, which prevents air from flowing freely and causes the filter to work overtime. 
• Doors Open and Close More: Doors opening and closing more often as family members come and go conditioned air can quickly escape. The continuous movement keeps the AC running almost all day and night, putting it under greater risk of mechanical failure or complete compressor burnout. 
• Short-Term Mitigation: Change your air filters before guests come to your home and inspect them every 3 weeks. Think about setting the temperature a few degrees higher during the hours of the day when it’s really hot, and use ceiling fans to help circulate air. 

The Laundry Room Bottleneck – More Work and Dangers

With guests in the house for extended periods of time comes a mountain of laundry. Your washer and dryer will probably be in use more often — multiple times daily compared to a few times a week, between all the beach towels, bed linens and everyday clothing. This high demand can speed up regular mechanical wear and tear, and poses a serious safety hazard that most homeowners will never even see. 

With high temps and fast lint build up, the situation is volatile in your dryer venting system. When a dryer is used almost all the time lint gets past the filter in the dryer and accumulates in the length of the exhaust duct. This restriction reduces airflow and causes your appliance to become hotter and operate for longer periods of time to complete a dry cycle, resulting in skyrocketing energy costs. 

Most important, however, is the fact that lint is extremely flammable. Trapped heat combined with accumulated lint in a small pipe is one of the leading causes of house fires. If the whole extended family suddenly decides to use your house for laundry, you’d better schedule a time for preventative maintenance first. 

So, if you want to stay safe this hosting season, save on energy expenses, shorten the running time of your dryer and keep the air flowing freely, consider investing in certified dryer vent cleaning services in Allentown. 

Plumbing Under Pressure: Dealing with the Influx

Your home plumbing design has been planned for the known habits of the main occupants. Combining the number of all the activities that use water in a day, such as showering, flushing toilets, and running dishwashers, can create a lot of pressure on pipes, drains and water heaters. What may be a minor leak that is not noticed during routine use can quickly turn into a plumbing nightmare? 

Think about main components that could be at risk during the summer when it’s busy: 

• The Water Heater Problem: Traditional tank water heaters have a limited capacity. Two consecutive showers can cause the unit to be in constant use without a break, causing the unit to accumulate sediments and cause a great deal of stress on the heating elements. 
• Sewer Lines and Drain Clogs: More use equals more hair, soap scum and food waste down the drain. Main sewer line backups can occur in a flash as a result of foreign objects or the wrong things being flushed down the toilet by visiting children or unaware guests. 
• Heavy Kitchen Garbage Use: Preparing large family meals means that the disposal is used more often. Starchy leftovers, fibrous vegetables, and hidden greases cause disposal blades to quickly clog and cause kitchen sink jams and localized flooding. 

Increasing Costs of Utilities: The Financial Toll

The physical stress on your appliances is a big concern, but the bank account stress is immediate. If you have to host someone over the summer, your monthly utility bills could end up spiraling out of control. Overused air conditioner, laundry machines on full tilt, the dishwasher running and charging electronics equals sticker shock on the bills. 

The key to keeping these costs down, but not making your guests feel unwelcome is to communicate clearly and make a few changes. Help your family to make full loads of laundry instead of half loads. Encourage people to turn off lights and fans when they leave rooms, and set some simple rules for water use, including shorter showers and keeping the water off while brushing your teeth. 

General Household Infrastructure Wear and Tear

Not only do the mechanical parts of your home have extra wear and tear in the summer, but there is more wear and tear on the physical structure of your home as well. Floors, carpets, doors and furniture take a greater beating than they’re used to, which can lead to faster deterioration of their appearance and integrity. 

• Flooring & Carpets: Dirt, sand & moisture from outdoor activities in summer added to areas of high foot traffic (Flooring & Carpets) This is an abrasive material that is ground into the carpet and scratches hardwood finishes causing a high degree of wear and tear and necessitating deep cleaning and/or refinishing very early. 
• Doors, Hinges and Hardware: Doors, Hinges and Hardware: Entry doors, screen doors and cabinet hinges are opened and closed hundreds of times per day. Rough handling or forcibly or wrongly opening/closing doors can cause frames to be misaligned, latches to malfunction, and screw strips.

• Furniture and Upholstery: Couches and chairs, more bodies for longer duration. By fall, the spills from your summer glasses of wine and the sunscreen all over the upholstery and cushions can make your rooms feel like they’ve been worn down, or weathered. 

With all this going on inside, it’s easy to see that a thorough exterior cleaning might be necessary as part of your post-hosting recovery procedure as well.

Conclusion: Proactive Preparation Saves the Summer

While it’s great to host family for the summer and it’s a great way to bring your family closer, it shouldn’t reduce the health of your home. Knowing the potential dangers—whether it’s a busy HVAC system, a leaky plumbing pipe, or a blocked dryer vent or outdated systems—you can take steps to prevent the issues from happening. With some planning, maintenance and simple tips, your summer can be about family memories instead of home repair nightmares.