The below advice is for your peace of mind, long-term cost saving, and your family/children’s comfort so they adjust quicker and more easily to Pakistan. Otherwise, you will find yourself constantly disturbed by continuous house maintenance issues and dealing with manual labourers entering the house, etc.
As a general rule avoid dealing with these things while living in the house with the family. Either stay in a rental for a couple of weeks before moving into the home or arrive before the family to sort these things out. This will avoid the first impression being a negative one and allow for things to be in place once they arrive.
Your house will most likely have 2 water tanks; one on the roof, another underground in front of your house. The mains water supply will fill the ground tank, and then a pump will fill the roof tank. Usually this is left to be done manually by the landlord and you will have to automate the ground floor tank to fill the roof tank via a floater switch.
1. Make sure the supply of water to the roof tank is controlled by an automatic floater valve connected to the ground tank pump so the roof tank never runs out of water, while also ensuring that the ground floor pump does not attempt to pump if the ground floor tank is empty.
2. Get 2 ‘Jumbo ‘ sediment filters for inline for water entering the roof tank, this protects the pump supplying the house and household devices and taps from sediment clogging. Should cost you 15K with installation (2025).
3. Make sure there’s no leaks in the house at all.. If there’s leaks, even a minor drip the pressure drops in the pipes and that will trigger your pump on the roof on and off continuously which will burn it and waste electricity. Check all your douches (Muslim showers), and taps including outside and on the roof.
4. Keep the pumps covered and try to protect from the weather & elements.
5. You’ll have to buy your own hot water heaters for each bathroom – electric instant ones are the way to go if you have solar.
6. Do not bother with heavy, annoying, time- and mental peace consuming gallon-sized mineral water bottles for your drinking water. Get under-sink filters, or a whole-house nanofilter system, so you can drink from the tap. If a whole-house system is too much because you’re renting, get an under-the-sink Reverse Osmosis or Nano Filter for drinking water. These filters even filter out microplastics—they’re that good—and once you use them, when you visit the West you will want one there too because the water is so nice tasting and chlorine-free.
7. Ensure that under every sink and water exit route, there is a P-trap to prevent smells and insects coming from the gutter. You can make that ‘P’ shape with something like this: https://www.daraz.pk/products/flexible-sink-basin-waste-pipe-with-stainless-steel-strainer-waste-coupling-adjustable-expandable-basin-drain-pipe-high-quality-flexible-waste-trap-for-kitchen-and-bathroom-leakproof-easy-installation-i884398842-s3913130787.html
8. Weather-strip and seal your whole house—see separate guide on this. Here is some examples of what you will need:
- https://www.daraz.pk/products/328ft-i538179989-s2522269430.html
- https://www.daraz.pk/products/5m-i526958797-s2478547497.html
- https://www.daraz.pk/products/tape-for-door-and-window-self-adhesive-d-type-rubber-foam-sealing-tape-for-sound-proofing-dust-stopper-air-and-insect-control-i274997801-s2317661652.html
AND these under every door: - https://www.daraz.pk/products/door-draft-and-dust-stopper-brown-the-color-18-52-inches-door-air-stopper-door-insect-protector-door-bottom-seal-excellent-quality-i435922362-s2094968700.html
OR - https://www.daraz.pk/products/door-draft-and-dust-stopper-brown-the-color-18-52-inches-door-air-stopper-door-insect-protector-door-bottom-seal-excellent-quality-i435922362-s2094968700.html
9. Keep shower pipes, douche heads, a spanner, and silicone tape at home. Because of water pumps shower pipes — including douches —often lose their integrity and leak. These leaks not only waste water and keep triggering the pump which will burn it, but also attract insects and dirt.
10. Avoid gas and gas cylinders. These are not only extremely dangerous — even mains gas supply is unreliable; more unreliable and unpredictable than electricity nowadays. Ideally, you have solar, but even if you don’t, switch to using induction hobs for cooking and instant electric hot water heaters (geysers) for your hot water. This will save you money and a lot of annoyance in the long run.
11. Get a magnetic insect net for your external doors, and ensure every window has an insect screen—pretty standard today: https://www.daraz.pk/products/100×210-i916052786-s3964492582.html
12. Only buy inverter ACs, and use Dry Mode. Pakistan is very humid in the summers; Dry Mode will significantly increase comfort in the monsoon months and save money. This option is usually indicated by a raindrop symbol on the remote control.
13. Seriously consider solar with LiFePO4 (LFP phosphate) batteries even if you’re renting—see separate guide on this.
14. See the separate guide on solar hot water heaters. They are not the same as solar panels that generate electricity.
15. Avoid getting domestic staff if you can — see separate article on this.
16. Each floor will have a DP box / fuse box with switches in it for various devices. Try to get them all labelled so you can quickly refer to them to work out any electrical issues or if you need to isolate or switch on/off some.
17. By law & the rules of housing societies, every house’s electricity should be grounded/earthed. This is done relatively cheaply by a 8 ft copper rod in the earth, and having the 3rd cable behind every plug socket connected to it.
18. Safety is pretty good in Pakistan so front doors don’t usually have latch locks on them that automatically lock when you close the front door, but it’s a good idea to get this done.
19. Make sure you clean your drains regularly, rain in Pakistan is intense and if your roofs and balconies have nowhere to drain, they will flood. Consider adding more holes on roofs and balconies to ensure water can’t get trapped.
20. Make sure both your tanks are cleaned before you move in, and at least annually
21. Get a pest control treatment done before you move in to kill any insects that have come in when it was empty. You won’t need to do it again after you move in if you follow the rest of the steps in this article, and seal the house as air tight as possible with weather stripping.
22. Check all the locks of the house to ensure they all work.
23. For privacy get your windows frosted with window film, something like this: https://www.daraz.pk/products/frosted-glass-paper-frosted-window-glass-sticker-sheet-frosted-privacy-window-sticker-self-adhesive-glass-film-for-home-and-office-frosted-paper-forwindow-and-door-blur-self-adhesive-glass-privacy-paper-i245182987-s1463598595.html
24. Consider cameras, and/or doorbell camera system.
