How much do you spend a year on up-keep?

[bicker]

How much have you spent over the last 10 years, or 20 years if you can, to maintain and repair or replace roof, siding, windows, foundation, structural framing, doors, walkways, driveway, lawns; including both maintenance and repair, materials and labor?

Please don't forget things like the water you pay for to water the laws, landscaping equipment such as rakes, snow-shoveling (if you pay someone else), lawn cutting (if you pay someone else), etc.

If you're comfortable saying, how much square footage is your home? How much property are you maintaining?

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

Not sure - never really kept track. I would guess more than $10k/yr.

Home about 4500 sq feet, with in-ground pool on about 3 acres.

 

[DawnM]

well, ours is high because we bought a house that we knew needed work!

We are on a well, so no water bills. We have 2.5 acres and maintain it ourselves with a large zero turn radius lawn mower.

The windows and structure are perfect shape, but we did have to put in a new roof and new heat pumps and new flooring within the last few years.

We have spent $40K on our house in the past 6 years in repairs and remodeling and roof and paint stain on the cedar siding. It is a little over 4,000 sq. ft. including the basement and we are finishing off the basement right now!

Dawn

How much do you spend a year to maintain and repair these aspects of your home: Foundation, structural framing, roof, siding, windows, doors, walkways, driveway, lawns. Please include both maintenance and repair, materials and labor. Don't forget things like the water you pay for to water the laws, landscaping equipment such as rakes, etc.

If you're comfortable saying, how much square footage is your home? How much property are you maintaining?

 

[mrodgers]

1000 SF, 2 acres lawn and many apple and peach trees. Large garden about 30 x 40 foot. Bought in 2000.

I spent $500 on insulation and OSB and ripped (carefully) the painted cedar siding down, ripped the exterior sheathing off and added insulation to our nearly non-existent insulation. I then resheathed with OSB and proceeded to strip all the paint off the cedar boards and stain it naturally.

I spent $2000 on a large lawn tractor in 2002 to mow the lawn.

I do want gravel for the driveway, but it's fine how it is.

I spent $500 for a snowblower because the lawn tractor just wasn't good for pushing snow.

I spent $150 2 years ago to have the septic pumped.

$600 for a tiller for the garden a few years ago.

Probably spend less than $100 on the garden to stock up the freezer for a winter's worth of corn and tomatoes (nothing else has done well for me.)

 

[wdwmom2]

Boy, and you thought the grocery thread would be challenging for us to be accurate!!

Ours varies from year to year, depending if we are doing home improvements. Without any home improvements included, I would guess we spend around $500, my best "guesstimate", mostly things for the yard such as fertilizer, mulch, flowers, pond maintenance, etc. We have all the yard tools one could possibly need, so no need for any purchases there.

Now home improvements are another story.

Right now, putting 1/4 inch drywall up over plaster walls in our dining room, crown molding, trim around the bottom, paint, mud, misc items, probably around $400. Dh and I are doing all the work ourselves.

Last November replaced all flooring on our first floor for around $9000. Includes hardwood, carpet, vinyl tile planking.

Three year ago a new roof with solar powered vent, 6" seamless gutters and downspouts. Around $6000. We had slate, replaced with plywood and 50 year architectural shingles.

About 7 years ago, installed a vent-less gas fireplace. Had a custom-made oak corner cabinet, floor to ceiling, to put it in. About$3500.

Before that, not sure of the years, replaced 22 windows. The kind that tilt in. LOVE THEM! Worth every penny of the $7000 we paid. Also, had the whole house rewired, more electrical outlets installed, and phone and cable lines in every room. Well, no phone or cable for the bathrooms! We had the old fuse box with the round fuses. That was around $4000.

I am sure there is probably something I am missing, but these are definitely the larger improvements we have done.

Oh, almost forgot, they are replacing gas, water, and sewer lines on our street. They also will relocate everyones gas meters to the outside of their homes. This started about 1 month ago. Our only expense will be replacing our sidewalk and curb. Not sure of the price yet, but there will be many people going together and using one contractor. We will get a group discount! Judging from what neighbors on another street paid a few years ago, that will be around $1200.

Oh, and our home is around 2000 sf of livable space, not including an attic that could be finished, and a basement. Our yard is not big as we live in town. It is around 1/4 acre.

 

[Darcy03231]

Our home is 2,200 s.f. (3,100 if you include the finished basement) with a two car attached garage on a 1/4 acre lot.

On average I would say $500 - $750 on general maintenance. For home improvement projects since we bought the house 14 years ago:

Finished basement - $7,000 (DH did everything himself but the plumbing, wiring was done by my dad who's a licensed electrician, and we hired someone to do the carpet). We put in a bedroom, living room, sitting room, bathroom and office.

Interior drain system - After living here for a few years we had water issues in the basement. We did an interior french drain system which meant all the carpet had to come up. It was about $8,000 for the drain system and about $2,000 for the carpet.

New Heating system - $4,000

Last summer we replaced the roof, siding, windows, took out a plate glass window in the family room and put in french doors and two new windows and had the deck rebuilt. Total cost was about $35,000.

 

[bicker]

The last couple of messages have gotten off the track a bit, though...

How much do you spend a year to maintain and repair these aspects of your home: Foundation, structural framing, roof, siding, windows, doors, walkways, driveway, lawns. Please include both maintenance and repair, materials and labor.

I'm trying to get a feel for how much, averaged over the long-term, a typical homeowner pays for maintenance, repair and replacement, for the exterior of their home and their front and back yards.

Thanks!

 

[wdwmom2]

How much do you spend a year to maintain and repair these aspects of your home: Foundation, structural framing, roof, siding, windows, doors, walkways, driveway, lawns. Please include both maintenance and repair, materials and labor. ?

OK, gotcha!

Probably around $100 to maintain our yard. This is for lawn fertilizer and the gas it takes to mow the lawn.

Foundation has no issues.
Structural framing has no issues.
Roof is new, so no issues.
Siding has no issues.
Windows are new, so no issues.
Doors have no issues. Unless we are getting so petty that you want to add a few cents to our maintaince bill for the few squirts of WD-40 that we put on the hinges to keep them squeak-free!
Walkways are fine on our property. But as stated in my earlier post, we are replacing the sidewalk and curb.
Driveway has no issues.
Lawn gets mowed and fertilized regularly. That's where my $100 figure comes in.

Is this what you are looking for??? Because if not, I am totally lost!!

 

[bicker]

You don't water the lawn?

Other than that, yup, that's what we're looking for. That sidewalk and curb info would be a critical component of that... you may not have that expense every year, but it is indicative of the expenses that you have every year. Next year you might need to paint the exterior trim. The year after that you might have to replace the fence, etc. So yeah, that's the kind of info we're looking for.

 

[wdwmom2]

You don't water the lawn?

Other than that, yup, that's what we're looking for. That sidewalk and curb info would be a critical component of that... you may not have that expense every year, but it is indicative of the expenses that you have every year. Next year you might need to paint the exterior trim. The year after that you might have to replace the fence, etc. So yeah, that's the kind of info we're looking for.

Nope, don't water the lawn. The only water we have used on the lawn is when we lost our huge maple tree. After it was cut down, everything removed and cleaned up, there were a few areas that needed reseeded. We watered those areas on a daily basis until the grass came up! That is the only time in the 15 years of living here that water has been used on the lawn.

 

[NHdisneylover]

In the US we had a 2000 SQF home on 2 acres in rural New Hampshire. New, with no upkeep really needed on the structure at all. Deck was trex and did not need any upkeep either. No fence:

WINTER:
$200 to $500 per year on paying someone to plow the long drive when really big storms hit (mostly handled it our selves with shovel or snow blower, but it was too much to do on our own for BIG storms, ice on top of snow or when DH was out of town and it was just one person trying to get it all).
Maybe another $100 on gas for the snow blower and the occasional replacement part.
A new snow shovel every 3 or so years at about $20
Sand and Salt for the drive/walks ran about $100 total for a year-probably less.

SUMMER:
$50 for fertilizer once a year
$50 or so dollars for gas for the lawn mower
$50 or so on flowers in the yard
never watered the lawn after the first year it was put in--never needed it.

Year Round:
$250 every other year to pump the septic
About $100 in salt for the water softener
About $250 in hot tub chemicals (and the electric bill went up about $10 a month on average when we got it)
New cover for hot tub every 5 years at $250
Grade driveway once every 5-7 years for $350

Soooo, trying to average that out I am coming to: $1400 a year on average.

In Germany we have a 1500SQF townhouse. Also newer with no structural maintenance issues at all. Small drive--so we just shovel it with one 20 Euro shovel. I have an electric an mower and it adds maybe 5 Euro to the bill in the summer months. We only water 3-4 times a year if it is really hot and no rain--call it 20 Euros which is probably very high. I but some new yardworking tools and gloves yearly--maybe 30 Euros worth and buy about 100 Euro worth of plants each spring.
So less than 200 Euro a year all told.

 

[java]

We pay around $2000 a year just to have out lawn serviced. We don't pay for water because we have a well but that requires upkeep that varies year to year. One year it can be $100 the next it can be a few thousand. So I don't have a set amount on that item, that is an emergency fund type of thing.
Driveway is $200 every 3 years. Oh forgot the septic but we've only had to pump it out once in 10 years, so averaged out over time it's really nothing. I think we paid $250 the time we did it.

The rest of the items on your list have not been a yearly issue.
Our home was built in 2001so things are starting to go.

 

[golfgal]

No where near what you are spending Our house is 3600 sq feet, we have an oversized suburban lot that is about 1/2 acre, not quite.

We haven't had any problems with structural issues so no money there. Our roof is new (4 years old-hail damage, paid $1000 deductible for the roof). Haven't had to fix siding or anything like that.

We do have our lawn fertilized 4 times during the summer so that comes to $280. I guess we spend $20-30 in gas for the lawn mower, no idea really but not that much overall.

Last summer we watered our lawn twice-had good, timely rains, but usually that adds about $200 over the course of the summer to our water bill, maybe.

We stained our fence last summer (DH did anyway), that was about $1000 in stain (big fence).

We have a man made pond in our backyard that we stopped keeping fish and running the water pump because that was about $50/month for electricity (well we have 5 ponds and only keep up 2 of them, the rest we filled in). We ran it last summer because of DS18's graduation but stopped after that was over.

What are you spending money on??

 

[bicker]

The rest of the items on your list have not been a yearly issue.

Okay, so I screwed up my question. I need to know how much per year averaged over the long-term - not how much every year for each item. I was expecting perhaps one person to have replaced their roof, this year, and averaging that into the total; etc. Those are real costs that are included in what I need to understand better.

So let's make this clearer...

How much have you spent over the last 10 years, or 20 years if you can, to maintain and repair or replace roof, siding, windows, foundation, structural framing, doors, walkways, driveway, lawns; including both maintenance and repair, materials and labor? (I can divide by 10 or by 20, myself. )

 

[bicker]

What are you spending money on??

Mostly on landscaping, snow removal, exterior painting, some residing, and roof repairs. This is one reason I hate living in Boston. Everything is so incredibly expensive. Try getting a plumber to come out to address a broken faucet: $300. And that's for crappy plumbers, because it breaks again a year later.

What's really galling is that we aren't really paying for all of it. A couple of the guys on the condo board here own construction companies, so they do a lot of the work for free.

Though reading a few of the other messages and adding in reasonable estimates for the things that folks have left out (like replacing the roof, replacing fences, redoing sidewalks, etc.) we might actually doing well. The more I think about this, the more it seems like there is no good way of getting this information from people. It's not like people keep track of this stuff like this (i.e., remembering how much they paid to replace their roof eight years ago, and adding in a good percentage of that amount into their total). Sigh.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Okay, so I screwed up my question. I need to know how much per year averaged over the long-term - not how much every year for each item. I was expecting perhaps one person to have replaced their roof, this year, and averaging that into the total; etc. Those are real costs that are included in what I need to understand better.

So let's make this clearer...

How much have you spent over the last 10 years, or 20 years if you can, to maintain and repair or replace roof, siding, windows, foundation, structural framing, doors, walkways, driveway, lawns; including both maintenance and repair, materials and labor? (I can divide by 10 or by 20, myself. )

You may find that there are a lot of people who do not stay put long enough to answer your question. We haven't. I haven't been in a position to own a home for 20 years years (I was 23 when we bought our first-not 18) an in teh 17 years that I HAVE been able to own a home we have owned 5 of them (which is a higher move rate than normal I think). We have not bought anyhting that would need upkeep for major items like foundations or roofs within the next ten or so years from purchase, an always sold before that amount of time goes by. So I am really goign to be no use to you. I wonder how many peopel really WILL be able to say they have been in one place that long AND really tracekd thses thigns to the detail you want to be able to give you an accuraate answer

I am curios, do you mind sharing what you are looking to get this info for? A tax thing? Figuring out how much you owe a sibling for a joint owned property? Wondering how much to charge for a maintenance fee to someone? Not that I have any right to know--just wondering

 

[LuvOrlando]

Well our home is on the young side so most of that stuff doesn't really need much care yet. Deck is every 4 years or so which is a huge pain and takes me days & days of work, it would cost thousands but for me once renting the sander ect I guess its $1,000 I never added up the labor but it's substantial and the same goes for the driveway. I treat our grass out of love and even then it's not cheap, It's about $1,000 a year in product with water at about $500 and labor for weeding and maintaining the flower beds, mulch ect. is another few hundred a year. Then you'd have to add in the equipment itself like the lawnmower, edger, leaf blower, rakes etc & snow blower, and a place to keep this stuff, it takes up a lot of space and you pay taxes on that space. Also add in the time spent outside doing it so a guy who makes a good living is throwing away a lot of money on this, each snowstorm is about 3 hours of work for DH and mowing the lawn is about 3 hours of work once a week in the fast growing months.

I think you guys are getting a great deal

 

[ReneeA]

Okay, so I screwed up my question. I need to know how much per year averaged over the long-term - not how much every year for each item. I was expecting perhaps one person to have replaced their roof, this year, and averaging that into the total; etc. Those are real costs that are included in what I need to understand better.

So let's make this clearer...

How much have you spent over the last 10 years, or 20 years if you can, to maintain and repair or replace roof, siding, windows, foundation, structural framing, doors, walkways, driveway, lawns; including both maintenance and repair, materials and labor? (I can divide by 10 or by 20, myself. )

I don't know of anyone that keeps track of those things over the long term.

We now own 2 homes. One is 92 years old, and there has been lots of maintenance and upkeep through the years. We've replaced the roof, furnace, added insulation, finished an attic space into a bedroom, had to do sewer work, waterproofing under the house, filling in the backyard with more dirt (we have a very high water table and the yard filled with water every spring), etc. The list goes on and on and on. We bought the house in 1997, and I would estimate that we have spent about $5,000-8,000 average per year on maintenance, repairs, and upgrades per year at this house. We are moving in the next month, and this house is going to become a rental house. I am planning to rent it out for what it costs us to live here, but we may end up losing a bit of money due to what it costs to maintain. I can't sell it right now for what we owe (or even close to what we owe).

We just purchased a new home that a builder walked away from before it was finished. The mortgage includes what it is going to cost us to finish it. It's been empty for 5 years, never been finished, and is in fantastic shape considering. It's never had heating or cooling, and it's not got any drywall cracks or nail pops, and is very structurally sound according to the inspectors we've had through it. I'm hoping for much less maintenance cost at the new house once it's done.

 

[golfgal]

Mostly on landscaping, snow removal, exterior painting, some residing, and roof repairs. This is one reason I hate living in Boston. Everything is so incredibly expensive. Try getting a plumber to come out to address a broken faucet: $300. And that's for crappy plumbers, because it breaks again a year later.

What's really galling is that we aren't really paying for all of it. A couple of the guys on the condo board here own construction companies, so they do a lot of the work for free.

Though reading a few of the other messages and adding in reasonable estimates for the things that folks have left out (like replacing the roof, replacing fences, redoing sidewalks, etc.) we might actually doing well. The more I think about this, the more it seems like there is no good way of getting this information from people. It's not like people keep track of this stuff like this (i.e., remembering how much they paid to replace their roof eight years ago, and adding in a good percentage of that amount into their total). Sigh.

Averaged out over the years, I would say under $1000/year. Fixing a broken faucet is pretty easy, buy a new one and install. Costs less then $300.

We have put on 3 roofs in the past 20+ years, 2 from hail damage and one from being old. The "old" one we paid $2500 to replace-but that was over 15 years ago (3 different houses). The total cost on this roof 4 years ago was about $10,000 so over 20 years, that is only $500/year if we had paid for the roof.

We did some landscaping at our old house and that was $2000 but that is the only real "landscaping" we have done. We fixed some stairs here (replaced railroad ties with decorative cement block stairs). That was $1500.

Still to average all of that out over the past 20 years would still MAYBE be $1500 if we had paid for the roof. Since we didn't, maybe $500/year??

 

[bicker]

I am curios, do you mind sharing what you are looking to get this info for?

I'm trying to confront the contention that we're already spending a lot of money on up-keep. As it is, just with what we're spending, we apparently still can't "afford" to do what's necessary to prevent ice dams. Between the fact that we've got guys in the business on the board, and the fact that I trust the accountant watching over the money implicitly, I know the money is being spent well. But it still isn't enough? If that's not it, what's the fourth possibility?