5 Tips for Second Home Owners-Fixes Like a Gutter Filter Can Help

gutter filter

If you are a second-home owner, chances are that your primary residence is more than 200 miles from your vacation house or condo. Whether it’s on the beach, in the mountains, or in another city, there’s no place like your holiday home or lake house. That’s where you go to relax, unwind, reconnect with family and pursue your hobbies. When you’re on vacation, why do we suggest a gutter filter could help?  Because the last thing you want to think about is home repairs. When you’re back from vacation and the second home is shut for the season, there may be a nagging fear in the back of your mind–did I do enough to prepare my home for my absence? Never fear, the MasterShield team has some tips to ease your mind when you’re far away.

5 tips for second home owners

Fixes like a gutter filter can help

1.Love thy neighbor–and make sure thy neighbor has a key. Whether it’s a flood, a hurricane or a power cut, your first line of defense is a friendly neighbor who has a key to your second home, your contact numbers, and instructions to check up after an emergency. Wouldn’t it be great to know that after a storm, someone will be checking for leaks, clogged gutters, and soggy basements. As regular readers of this blog know, problems caused by water damage can be the costliest to fix.

2. Chill out when you’re in it–but don’t let your vacation home get too chilly when you’re away. If your home is an area where cold winters are the rule–and they’ve had those in Miami the last couple of years–you want to make sure your house isn’t bone cold. Timers are a good way to periodically warm your interior without spending a bundle. Insulation of pipes is a good way of keeping them from freezing, causing an expensive visit from your plumber.

3. Feeling a little drained can be a good thing. One solution to the frozen pipes menace is to drain the system of water. You can get more information on frozen pipes and draining water systems on weather.com’s helpful page.

4. When the owner’s away, the mice will play. Rodents just love empty houses, so your best defense is being a bad host. Ideally, all food should be disposed of before you leave, but if not everything left should be in a sealed container, preferably metal. And not to gross you out, but mice are big fans of soft material like cushions and pillows for nesting materials, so if you plan to be gone for an extended period, seal these items in plastic. Insects like centipedes, slugs, and roaches are attracted to damp houses–an extra reason to check for leaks, spills and pools of standing water in and around the house before you leave. Your gutters are probably the last place you would think of as a home for insects–but it happens more often than you would think. MasterShield’s micro mesh gutter filter eliminates standing water from your gutters and ensure that they don’t become a mosquito paradise.

5. Your second home shouldn’t be something you have to worry about, checking every storm in the forecast and wondering if your gutters will clog with fallen leaves or have an ice dam problem. Gutters are not designed to work in the winter with snow and ice. They can freeze solid and may collapse or pull away from the house from the weight of the ice that collects in them. To promote the release of snow and ice, MasterShield creates an extension of the roof that mirrors its existing pitch. The goal is to maintain the roof line so as not to create a separate plane where ice can form and get trapped. A micro-filtration gutter filter like MasterShield will ensure clean clear gutters and priceless peace of mind.