Landlords Insulation Reminder - Upgrade your Home!
Well Insulated Home Equals Happy Tenants
If you are a landlord that is planning on renting their home, you need to be willing to invest into it and install a few upgrades, not to mention that regular control and maintenance is a must. This goes not only when preparing your home for renting but also keeping it well protected during the lease. This way you will easily find interested parties, attract tenants that are willing to pay more money and keep them happy and satisfied, with all the bills regularly paid. Investments that must be considered refer to smaller reparations like replacing windows and doors, decorating the façade, repainting the walls, replacing floor boards or roof tiles, but also adding insulation which is very important for tenants. Thus, this is a kind reminder for all landlords to upgrade their home with insulation.
If you are wondering why you should invest into your home and is there a guarantee that these investments will pay back over the years, here are a few things that may convince you into upgrading your home with insulation:
- Available research has shown that tenants are more likely to move into a house that has already been insulated than invest into insulation themselves. Also, they tend to stay longer in houses that are properly protected with added insulation, mostly regarding wall and floor insulation.
- It is well known that added insulation improves thermal performance of the building by putting under control heat loss and heat gain thus reducing energy consumption and energy bills. Tenants who spend less money on utility bills are more likely to pay their rent on time and what is more important stay in the rented house longer since there is no need to move if the total amount they are willing and able to pay for renting can be adapted to their home budget.
- Since insulation can also deal with some other issues such as damp, mold and moisture, if a rented house has is properly upgraded with insulation, it will be able to prevent damp and moisture from causing damage to the walls and thus not only increase the maintenance costs but also affect the health of the tenants. This can lead to not only increased overall costs for the tenants (for medical bills for example) but can also result in unpleasant lawsuits.
- Finally, if your tenants are please with all the living conditions, it is more likely that they will take proper care of the property, but also further invest into it.
How to Attract and Keep your Tenants Happy
Now, regardless of whether you are planning on attracting potential tenants or simply keeping them happy, it is important to undertake a few actions that may consume some time and money, but will pay themselves off through the rent you will collect in the years to come.
Our first advice is to always determine the state your property is in. This refers to every point of the property, from its foundation to exterior, interior up to the loft and roof. If there are any repairs necessary, such as replacing a leaking roof tile or a loose floor board, make sure you take care of that. Another important issue when upgrading your rental home is infestation. You will need a proper audit conducted in order of determining whether any action needs to be taken in that direction.
Finally, once all the previous issues have been dealt with, we advise you go for an energy audit of your home. This is something you can do yourself, but we advise you to ask for professional help since there are usually some things that you may overlook and can be of great importance. Such energy audit will help you determine which the weakest points of your home are when it comes to insulation and overall energy efficiency. At the end, you should have a very detailed list of the things that need to be installed or upgraded within your home.
You should then make an insulation plan and try to do some things simultaneously. For example, if you are dealing with mould and damp issues, choose insulation that has a level of moisture resistance which will prevent the moisture from reappearing over time. Also, if are dealing with potential fire hazards, then upgrade your home with fireproof insulation that you are able to purchase at reasonable prices. If you need to repair the windows (replace a broken glass for example), use to opportunity to add some seal around the window frame and prevent air leaking which can also affect the thermal performance of your property.
Then, moving from top to bottom, if you determine that the roof cover needs to be replaced or repaired, use the opportunity to add some insulation, since some insulation materials will anyhow require lifting the roof cover. If you are planning on expanding your home by converting your loft into a liveable area, then that would be the best time to add some loft insulation which is a prerogative when it comes to conversion projects. Finally, if you need pipes repaired or replaced, consider adding some insulation wrap that will protect the pipe work from freezing during the winter and also overheating, especially if used to conduct hot water.
When it comes to cavity or solid wall insulation, please note that a level of insulation is not only useful but is also imposed by the Building Regulations, so we advise you always take theses into account when considering any insulation upgrade for your home.
We offer a wide range of high quality UK insulation products, suitable for different applications and at low prices. Buy insulation online - order or send your quote request today!