Fall Home Maintenance
Did You Know? [video_popup url=”https://youtu.be/_ZFBk-YScAg” text=”Fall Home Winterization”]
Early fall is a perfect time to do Fall home maintenance that will preserve the construction of your home and add to your comfort as the days get cooler and daylight hours get shorter. Doing these fall check lists feels like packing away your summer and preparing to keep your home safe and warm for the winter months. Doing regular maintenance is the best way to conserve the value of your home while keeping it an enjoyable and comfortable place to live.
- Clean the gutters
- Once most of the leaves have fallen, clean out gutters and downspouts (hire a helper if you are not comfortable on a ladder). Clogged gutters during rainstorms can cause water to pool and damage your roof or siding.
- Check windows and doors for drafts
- Weather-stripping applied around the frames of windows and doors helps boost winter warmth and cut energy costs. Add door sweeps to the base of drafty doors to keep heat in and cold air out.
- Check and repair cracks in your driveway
- When the landscape is covered in ice and snow, just walking from the driveway to the front door can be quite a challenge. Make navigating around your home safer by checking that all stairs are in good shape and have sturdy railings, and that the driveway is in good repair to make for easier shoveling.
- Check the roof for damaged or loose shingles
- Take a walk around your property, looking for signs of damage to the roof, siding and foundation. If you spot anything that needs repair, schedule it before winter weather hits.
- Change furnace filters
- Making sure your chimney and furnace or boiler are cleaned, maintained and in working order before you need to turn on the heat is an important safety measure. And be sure to add a chimney cap if you don’t already have one — it will stop critters from crawling down your chimney!
- Change batteries in smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors
- Test smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors; replace batteries as needed. Check the expiration date on your fire extinguisher and replace if needed. If you haven’t checked your home for radon, fall is a good time to do so — as the weather gets cooler and windows stay shut more often, radon is more likely to become trapped in your home. Radon at high enough levels is extremely harmful, so if you find that your home has radon (a radon level of 4 or above is considered unacceptable by the Environmental Protection Agency), hire a contractor qualified to fix radon issues.
Doing simple Fall Home maintenance checks and repairs twice a year in the fall and spring, establishes a plan to keep your home in good condition. Keeping your home in good repair is the number one thing you can do to uphold the appraised value of your home. Want to know the value of your home? Check the Property Valuation Page.
