Essential Maintenance for Your Sanibel Island Beach Home

Owning a Sanibel or Captiva Island beach home is different than owning a home further inland. Being in constant contact with the salty and moist air brings a different set of needs. Every home has routine maintenance requirements and taking care of these requirements on a timely basis is important to keep your home running well and to help retain the highest property value possible. 

Making sure you are as knowledgeable as can be about what a Snaibel beach home will need to keep it in top shape is beneficial on many different levels. In addition to traditional maintenance tasks, there are some areas of your home to give special attention to in a beach location. 

Essential Maintenance Tasks for a Sanibel Beach Home

Taking Care of Outdoor Metal Fixtures

Salty moist ocean air is a huge contributing factor to rust. Anything on the exterior of the home or in your yard and landscaping that is metal is highly susceptible to rusting more quickly. It is a good idea to paint metal fixtures including handrails, deck rails, door knobs, and more with a strong coat of weatherproof paint. Metal fixtures should be cleaned/ wiped down on a regular basis and paint should be checked and touched up every year or twice a year if needed. 

Maintaining Wood

Besides fire, the biggest enemy of wood is moisture. In a coastal home, wood is much more vulnerable to the environment. Wood that is not maintained properly will begin to rot and cause significant issues at a beach home. Wood needs to be protected with more aggressive efforts in a beach home. One of the best ways to protect wood is with paint. If you prefer to keep the natural finish of the wood visible stain can be used, but it will need more frequent application. Wood will need to be checked quarterly to make sure the paint/stain is holding up as it should. Exterior wood elements on beach homes will require more frequent painting than in other homes. 

Waterproofing

In any home, you want to prevent water damage at all costs. In a beach home you have to contend with water in the air all the time, water from the ocean itself, and rain. Yes, even in sunny Florida there is a fair share of rain. In fact, Florida actually has more rain than many other areas of the world that are famous for being rainy. Using waterproofing sealants in important areas like the foundation can be extremely helpful to protect a beach home from issues like mold and mildew. 

It is a good idea to check the landscaping around your home periodically, especially after a large rainfall, to ensure that it is draining around the home and water is not pooling up next to your home. 

Windows

Living in the salty air, you may notice a cloudy layer settling onto your home's windows. This is the salt in the water being carried into the air and resting on your windows. The outside of your windows will require more frequent cleaning and more elbow grease. It can be a huge pain to clean the outside of your beach home windows when the salt has been given more time to build up. You might find that the outside of your windows will need attention every few months as compared to annually with a traditional home. 

A home on or near the ocean will require some more routine maintenance attention than a home further inland, but staying on top of these extra tasks will make them quick work instead of major overhauls and you will find the extra tasks are a small tradeoff for owning a home in the most beautiful place in Florida, Sanibel Island. 

For more information about real estate on Sanibel Island including available beachfront properties please contact us any time.