Fence looking a little worse for wear?  Is it in danger of falling down?

If the fence on the left looks like yours, it does NOT need to be replaced!  Did you know that there is a company in the Oakville area that will repair your fence, no matter how small the problem?  One post broken? We will replace it and reattach your fence seamlessly.

One call to Lakeshore Home Maintenance is all it takes to have your fence repaired, new posts installed, lattice replaced or a broken gate fixed.  Call us today at 289-242-8439 to discuss your fence repair needs.  Fully Insured and WSIB compliant.

• Friendly, efficient service
• Local to Oakville, Mississauga and Burlington
• All work warranted for 2 years for labour and materials
• 100′s of satisfied local clients!

Call us today to book your fence repair before the winter sets in.  289-242-8439

Top 10 Home Maintenance Items to take care of before winter hits.

Lakeshore Home Maintenance can help you with any or all of these items.  Call us today at 289-242-8439 to ensure your home is ready for the winter. 

1. Before you use any fossil-fuel-burning appliance — such as a gas- or wood-fired furnace, stove, boiler or fireplace — the chimney, vent or flue needs to be inspected for blockages or damage. A damaged flue is hazardous and can lead to carbon-monoxide poisoning or, in the case of a fireplace or wood stove, a house fire. Hire a professional to inspect the venting systems.

 2. Change the batteries in smoke alarms and carbon-monoxide detectors. Smoke alarms should be replaced every five years. 

3 . Visually inspect the roof and eavestroughs for signs of damage or leaks. Clean the eaves and extend the downspouts at least 6 feet from the home’s foundation. Roof repairs should be made before the temperatures drop and the damp weather makes proper repairs almost impossible.  

 4. Have the home’s heating system inspected and serviced for optimum operating efficiency and safety. If you heat your home with a gas- or oil-fired furnace or boiler, the flames and oxygen levels should be adjusted and the heat exchanger inspected for cracks or damage. Heat pumps need to be cleaned, and refrigerant levels checked by a qualified service technician. Fans, switches, capacitors, circuits and reversing valves also need to be inspected in operation. 

5. Change furnace filters. Why is this on a fall maintenance list? A dirty filter is the No. 1 cause of inefficiency for a forced air heating/cooling system. A dirty filter blocks airflow through the fan, which can damage not only the fan, but also the outside unit of a heat pump/air conditioner. In addition, a clean filter delivers cleaner, healthier air to the home.

6. On these cooler days, it would be a good idea to check the insulation in the attic. Heat rises, and a poorly insulated attic allows all that expensive warm air to escape through the roof. The summer storms can blow through an attic, creating huge piles of any type of loose-fill insulating materials. Use an extending paint pole with a roller attached to spread the loose insulation evenly. Call your local building official to see how much insulation is needed for your area, and add more if necessary. Approximately 95 percent of the attics we inspect need additional insulation just to meet minimum standards.

7. Inspect the openings around exterior windows, doors and any other crack or opening on the wall of the home. Homes constructed after 1980 should have a thermal barrier of insulation inside the walls, but cracks and openings on the outside allow cold air to bypass the insulation and cool the home. Caulk and seal any cracks you can safely reach. Remember, small holes at the base of some of your brick joints are drainage holes, and are supposed to be there!  Do not fill these.   Replace any cracked or broken glass.

Inspect Window frames for Rot

8. Remove garden hoses, and drain and store for winter. A hose left connected to an outside faucet can cause the faucet to freeze and break inside the walls of the home. Every time you use the faucet after it has been damaged, it will leak to the interior of the home. The leak will be out of sight and can, therefore, cause a lot of damage before the problem is discovered.  Bleed all exterior water lines after turning them off and opening them for the winter. 

9. Replace the outside light bulbs. If Murphy is right, and he usually is, your lights will go out under the least favorable conditions for replacement. Any light bulb that has a standard screw-in “Edison”base should be replaced with one of the newer CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs to save energy. 

10. Inspect the foundation crawlspace of your home. Problems with plumbing leaks, flooding, decayed wood, damaged insulation, pest entry, damaged ductwork, etc., often lurk in the crawlspace where no one wants to go.   

Call Lakeshore Home Maintenance today at 289-242-8439 to discuss getting your home ready for the winter.  2010 is supposed to be a cold one!  

The winds have arrived in Oakville (and Mississauga, Burlington and surrounding areas) and with it, fences are going down. It is rare these days to NOT get a phone call about someone needing a repair done on a fence or deck rail and Lakeshore Home Maintenance has the knowledge and expertise to take care of all these problems.

A few words to the wise on the issue of wooden fences, namely how they are typically built, what their life span should be, and of course, the fact that nothing is carved in stone when it comes to how long they should last. Most of the work we take care of when it comes to our lovely home borders is on the 20+year old wooden board on board fence. 4×4 pressure treated posts set in concrete. These fences were built in the housing boom of the 80’s, in areas like Glen Abbey, Upper Middle and 8th Line, Southeast Oakville and parts of Westoak Trails. It seems to be that fences have a life span of about 20 – 25 years. Generally, something happens, some event that finally snaps one or more of your posts, and down they come, bringing multitudes of wooden slats with them. Gardens are crushed, barbecues are damaged, and your backyard suddenly becomes everybodys business!

Which brings us to a word about neighbours. We’ve all heard that “good fences make good neighbours” and we find that in many cases, people don’t know how true this is until the fence comes crashing down. It is important to determine whether the fence is on the lot line (often the case) or solely your own (or your neighbours) property. When the fence is on the lot line, people generally split the cost of a fix between the neighbours. Of course, there are cases when one party is not interested in fixing the fence, or feels that it is not their fault that the fence went down in the first place, based on how it fell.

Many factors can contribute to your fence coming down before its time, and one of the biggest culprits is the garden bed that has been built up in front of a fence, sometimes with boards and/or weed barrier up against the fence to keep the soil in your garden. Unfortunately, this puts undue strain on the boards and the posts and will rot everything prematurely. Remember when you are planning your gardens, to keep the level of the soil low where it hits the fence, and you can save yourself some costly repairs down the road. Keep your fence posts clear at all times of debris and soil, as our freeze/thaw cycles can seriously wreak havoc on the wood.

When it is time to repair your fence, be sure that you find someone who understands how to properly install new posts, digging deep enough to ensure that all concrete is well below the frost line, posts are levelled and true, and that they have the experience and knowledge from working on many different styles and sizes of fence. Often, we are called out to fix other people’s work, working on fences that have more angles than a geometry set!

We can take care of every aspect of fixing your fence, whether you just need one new post, or a whole new section repaired or replaced. Whether you want pressure treated wood or cedar, painted or natural. Lakeshore Home Maintenance has the know-how and expertise to do it right, at the right price for you.

We love this part of our job…seriously!  We just love to take your unwanted junk and garbage, load it in our truck or onto a rented bin, and watch it disappear.  What do you need us to get rid of?  We have removed some interesting pieces of garbage in Oakville in the past few years..

• Pool filter
• toilets, toilets and more toilets. (we install toilets too!)
• Raccoon poop
• Moldy insulation
• Water damaged ceiling tiles
• Really nasty ugly old lampshades
• Carpets that fall apart in our hands (and have things living in them)
• Tires, tires and more tires
• Wheelchair that had to have been 75 years old
• Stairs from a set of cedar stairs that was 50 years old
• (insert crazy thing here)

Bottom line, if you have it, and don’t want it anymore and it wont fit in your car, or you cant get to the dump, give us a call at 289-242-8439

Drywall repair in Oakville

The walls (and ceiling) around us are something we rarely think about, unless of course they are an awful shade of mint green that we cannot live with (personal story here) or they have been damaged in some way (think hockey games in the living room, or an unforseen flood in the master bathroom).  Then there is always the wall that is there, that we don’t want to be there, we can take care of that also.

Lakeshore Home Maintenance does tend to focus on the smaller jobs, the hole in the wall, the repair from the work that the plumber did, even just evening out a wall that was finished improperly.  Our services are offered in Oakville, Burlington and South Mississauga.

When faced with a drywall repair, it is important to understand the process every step of the way.  When we repair drywall, initially we remove the existing drywall up to the studs and then install a new piece to fit into the hole.  In some cases, we can actually do a smaller repair with special clips that ensure a secure fit without having to attach to the studs. 

The new piece of drywall is taped and the first coat of drywall compound (commonly referred to as “mud”) is applied.   After sufficient drying time a second coat of mud is applied.  A third coat is sometimes necessary depending on the application but usually a sanding after the second coat leaves the wall ready to prime and paint. 

This multi step process means that we often need to come back to your home at least two times, and for that reason, is part of the cost associated with this type of repair.   We have expert framers, drywallers and mudders!

The finished result is worth it however, as your wall (or ceiling!)  is back to its smooth forgettable self, and all it needs is a coat of primer and paint (which we can also do!) to once again become the backdrop for your own decorating style. 

If you live in the Oakville area, please call Lakeshore Home Maintenance today for your large or small drywall repair job.  We can be reached at 289-242-8439.

Oakville Garden, stone and wooly thyme sitting area

At Lakeshore Home Maintenance, we believe that every home can and should have beautiful colourful gardens that enhance your enjoyment of your outdoor living space.  Many of our clients come to us with existing gardens that have become overwhelming for them to take care of, and need help to get them back under control.  Some are living in homes that have a yard that is a blank slate, looking to create their own little paradise that they can escape to after a long work day. 

Whether it is the weeds that have gotten out of control, plants that are overgrown, or just a change of design that you need, we can help you every step of the way. 

From custom planter boxes to new hedges, to ponds and waterfalls, your gardens can be the oasis that you desire, all within the budget that you set. 

Call us today at 289-242-8439 to see how we can transform your outdoor living space from plain, to simply fabulous.