Home maintenance made easy this fall – Just follow our checklist

Fall is here, complete in it’s beautiful colors, crisp morning air and pumpkin harvests! It’s also the perfect time to prepare your home for the winter months ahead, ensuring that your home and family stays comfortable in the cold weather, as well as reducing the risk of costly home repairs. Here’s our fall home checklist to help you out.

• Clear gutters and downspouts: The falling leaves look beautiful, but they are a hazard that every homeowner needs to address. It’s best to clear your gutters and downspouts on a regular basis through the fall months, especially if you have trees close to your house. Neglected gutters clog up, becoming a home to pests and causing poor drainage that can easily lead to leaks and wood rot. While you’re clearing them, look for any damage that may need to be repaired. Once clean, run some water through the gutter system to check for leaks, to ensure water isn’t coming down behind the gutters, and that no water is pooling against your home’s walls and foundation.
• Trim your trees: According to arborists, this is the best time of year to maintain your trees, as they are going into a dormant phase and are much less likely to get a disease. Trim away any branches that are very close to your home’s walls or likely to drop leaves onto your roof. Take a good look at the trees in your yard and get rid of dead wood and branches. If you notice any signs of fungi or disease, now is the best time to apply treatment.
• Check for drafts: Your home’s heating system is going to work hard over the coming months, and any air leaks in your home’s exterior will force it to work even harder, wearing your equipment out faster and increasing your energy bill. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, heat loss from windows alone are responsible for 25-30% of home heating energy use! To prevent this, apply weatherstripping to ensure they have a solid seal. Adding door sweeps to the base of drafty doors will help keep warm air in and cold air out. This is also a good time of year to check your roof for missing or damaged shingles that need replacing.
• Heating system maintenance: You’re going to rely on your heating system to keep you cozy, so now’s the time to make sure it’s in proper working order. Clean and change filters, clear your chimney, stock up on firewood and give the system a test run. If you aren’t up to the task, ask your neighbors for a professional recommendation and book early – winter is a busy time of year for heating and fireplace specialists, and it can be more difficult to get an appointment or parts if you wait too long.
• Remove your window A/C unit: If you use a window air conditioning unit, then it needs to be cleaned, removed and stored for the winter. If you are unable to remove it, it should be cleaned and then thoroughly covered by an insulating, weather-proof cover to keep the cold air out.
• Clean out your dryer: We all rely on our dryers, especially in the cold weather – and with heavy winter clothes, lint build-up is a real issue. Prepare for the winter by cleaning your dryer vent or hiring a duct cleaning professional to do it for you. This is important because it not only helps prevent dryer wear-and-tear and repairs, but because lint build-up is a dangerous fire hazard.
• Fertilize your lawn: Want that dream lawn for the summer? Now’s the time to start. While the leaves of your grass are dormant through the winter, the roots are not. Fertilizing now will keep roots healthy and ready to spring into action when the warmer weather arrives, helping your lawn green up faster. While you’re fertilizing, it’s a good opportunity to aerate your lawn too. This relieves compaction and opens up the soil, making it easier for roots to access nutrients and thrive.
• Store your summer stuff: Leaving summer equipment like mowers, gardening tools, pool toys and even furniture out over the winter will just leave them damaged, dirty and in need of repairs. Clean each item well before you store it, getting rid of all dirt and debris. Your storage space should be clean, safe and leak-free to avoid rusting and mold. Mowers and weed whackers should either be drained of gas or supplied with fuel stabilizer before they are stored in order to prevent damage to the engine and fuel lines.
• Check your safety devices: Replace all the batteries in your alarm systems, including smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and test the system to ensure that they are in good working order.
• Shut off exterior faucets and store your hoses: Although much of Texas has fairly mild winter weather, freezing temperatures do happen so it’s best to be prepared. You can protect your exterior pipes by shutting off the water supply to exterior faucets before the freezing weather arrives. Hoses should be drained and stored to prevent freezing, which can leave you with leaks in the spring.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this article – happy winter prepping!