Park Home Maintenance
External Park Home Maintenance
Regular external park home maintenance is needed to ensure your home is pleasant and secure to live in. Good external park home maintenance will reduce the need for and the cost of repairs.
To comply with the requirements of your park home insurance policy, a regular, documented maintenance schedule is a good idea. In the event of a claim, a well-maintained park home makes it much easier to establish that you are not liable for any damages.
External park home maintenance carried out regularly enough should be simple and not too difficult. Allowing problems to build up is when damage and disputed claims can arise. We hope in this guide to help you avoid this.
Whatever your circumstances, this guide is designed to help you organise your external maintenance schedule and to assist you in keeping the value, the comfort and the safety of your property at its best in all circumstances.
Park homes have a very different structure to regular homes so be aware that specialist assistance is sometimes required. Be realistic about the tasks you can complete yourself and those for which you will need help.
Roofing and Guttering
- Clean off any moss and dirt.
- The tiles should be checked and loose tiles should be re-pinned.
- Any damaged tiles should be replaced.
- Applying an exterior coating and silicone spray for weather-proofing can increase the life of your park home roof.
Chassis Maintenance
Park home chassis are open to the elements and can be affected by any build-up of water, snow, or mud. Without adequate protection, the steel frame of the chassis can corrode and rust, making it brittle and prone to cracking or even, in extreme cases, buckling under the weight of the park home and its contents. Support jacks can corrode, too, making the chassis even more vulnerable to deterioration.
Early signs of damage to watch for include squeaky or uneven floors. More serious symptoms include floor movement and dampness leading to heat loss. The most severe cases could lead to the roof cracking or the park home floor subsiding.
You should have a full inspection and service every few years to re-strengthen and condition the chassis, add support jacks where necessary and provide underfloor insulation. Check the length of the guarantee for this work with the contractor you use.
Your metal chassis should be painted with rust proof paint.
Insulation
Find out about waterproof insulation systems. These can improve the comfort of your home and reduce heating bills dramatically. Insulation can also help to deter frost damage.
Make sure all water pipes have sufficient lagging to avoid frost damage and leaks.
Exterior cladding
External park home maintenance is not complete without checking your boardings and cladding.
Remove damaged timber boardings and any rotten structural supports. Replace them with new and specially treated support timbers and boardings.
Coat the exterior using a coating specially formulated for park homes which is highly weatherproof, designed for homes both in the countryside and at the coast in salty weather conditions. It also needs to be flexible, as park homes are built of timber and designed to flex. Adding a silicone spray finish is also a good idea.
Keep Maintenance Records
Keep receipts and invoices if you have employed someone to do the work. Even if you have, be aware that between you and your insurer it is you who carries the responsibility to carry out maintenance to the standard required. Some firms, however, will guarantee their work in this respect.
Take photos of work done before and afterwards on your phone or with a camera. This is useful should an issue arise between you and the insurer or between you and the people carrying out the work. It is advisable to do this even if it is only you who maintains the property.
Be aware of your own safety especially if you are to carry out the maintenance work on your own.
To find out more about insurance for your park home, call our specialist insurance advisers on 01604 946 796.
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Published – 16/03/21
