There are no shortages of to-dos on a business owner’s list, and the same can be said for homeowners. No matter if you own a business or a home, there is one item that is often missing from the list altogether, and it can be a costly one.
Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) and plumbing maintenance is something that should be completed every year. The consequences for going without can be very expensive and inconvenient. But what we’ve learned from the first-ever Williams Comfort Air and Mr. Plumber Indiana Home Maintenance Survey is Hoosier homeowners are rarely investing in these kinds of maintenance plans, and worse still is they would find covering an emergency HVAC or plumbing bill of $1,000 or more to be difficult.
Analyzing Risks with Home or Business Maintenance
Arguably even more so than homeowners, most business owners are well aware of and constantly analyzing risk. Should we move to a new office? Should we make a new hire? Can we offer a new service? Risk assessment is happening on some level or another. Yet many business owners aren’t considering the risk their own office spaces present.
Whether you own a business or a home, there is inherently a risk of something going wrong (and that’s not just with HVAC and plumbing equipment, of course). That said, HVAC and plumbing repairs–especially those completed on an emergency-basis–are quite costly. Research shows homeowners spent an average of $1,953 on emergency home projects per household in 2022. In Indiana, 57 percent of homeowners reported they would have trouble covering a bill of $1,000 or more. This indicates homeowners are not setting aside the widely recommended one percent of a home’s value for emergency home repairs. In our state, the average home price as of June 2023 is $226,350, according to Zillow data. That means most people should have $2,263 set aside. Consider that most business spaces cost more than that, and you can see that it’s a large sum of money that should be set aside for repairs.
Letting Preventive Maintenance Prove its ROI
Many business leaders will say “cash is king,” and while that may be so, there’s also the advice that you must spend money to make money. When it comes to saving on emergency HVAC and plumbing repairs, spending a little over time can help ensure you don’t end up paying a lot all at once.
Preventive maintenance on HVAC and plumbing systems should be done on an annual basis. But 69 percent of Hoosier homeowners do not currently have an ongoing preventive maintenance plan. I encourage business and homeowners to evaluate what the return on investment (ROI) would be for one of these plans for their home or business. Chances are you’ll find that spending a small amount of money throughout the year on maintenance provides a better return than spending nothing and ending up with one large, unexpected bill. The maintenance work should be specifically tailored to extend the life of your systems, meaning you won’t need to invest in a brand-new HVAC as soon as you would if no maintenance was performed.
What to Look for in Annual Maintenance
You’ll be happy to know the most critical maintenance for an HVAC system can be done without hiring a professional: Changing out the filter. This should be done regularly (every few months or so normally, though more often is recommended amid the poor air quality we’ve been having lately) and is a task you can easily take on independently.
When seeking out and analyzing more robust preventive maintenance plans, here are some tasks to look for:
For plumbing maintenance:
- Inspecting drains
- Flushing out water heater
- Checking water pressure and water quality
- Testing emergency shut off valves
- Examining crawlspaces and basements for potential problems
For HVAC maintenance:
- Inspecting indoor coils and cleaning outdoor coils
- Checking refrigerant levels (if applicable)
- Inspecting the heat exchanger
- Testing all electrical components of systems
To get the most bang for your buck, sign up for a preventive maintenance plan that will offer a discount for ongoing maintenance versus booking one-off visits. Also consider booking appointment slots in advance to avoid struggling to find appointment openings during the busy seasons (very hot or very cold times).
Know that money spent on preventive HVAC and plumbing maintenance is not cash flushed down the toilet (excuse the pun). Investing in these systems is crucial, just like investing in a quality workforce.
Greg Wells is the President of MAX Service Group which operates Williams Comfort Air and Mr. Plumber in Indianapolis. The full Hoosier Home Maintenance Survey results can be found here.
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