Skip to main content

Fall is Coming: Follow This Ultimate Fall Home Maintenance Checklist To Keep Your Family Cozy All Season Long

We hope you like the products we recommend. Just so you are aware, Freshome may collect a share of sales from the links on this page. 

Fall is almost upon us. Are you and your home ready for the coming season?

If you’re not sure, you’re in luck. We’ve put together the ultimate fall home maintenance checklist to help you make sure that you have all your key maintenance tasks covered. Read on below to see if you have anything left to do. If you complete all the tasks on this list, you can rest easy knowing that your home will stay safe and dry all season long.

fall home maintenance checklist

Don’t forget to clean out your gutters. Image: Sundeleaf Painting

Clean out your gutters

The season is changing and with it comes falling leaves and heavy rainstorms. Do your best to make sure that your gutters are clear to handle any of these occurrences and the resulting muck. Unfortunately, when left untreated, clogs can cause pooling, standing water and runoff in inappropriate locations, which can lead to water damage.

How: Fortunately, cleaning a gutter is fairly simple. Starting close to the downspout, you’ll want to use gloved hands to get rid of any debris that’s gotten stuck in the gutters. Once all the solid debris is gone, use a hose to wash out the remains and make sure water is running through the gutters properly. The biggest concern, in this case, is safety. Make sure you have a spotter while you’re up on the ladder.

seal

Seal off windows, doorways and exterior cracks. Image: Landmark Custom Builder & Remodeling, LLC

Seal up windows, doors and cracks

As the weather turns colder, gaps and cracks in a house can become readily apparent. On the one hand, doors and windows can let in airflow, resulting in chilly rooms and increased heating bills.  On the other, small, unnoticed cracks on the exterior of your home can provide entry points for mice and other pests that are trying to escape dropping temperatures.

How: Again, this is an easy fix. Applying a few lengths of weather stripping around drafty windows and doors is typically enough to keep your heat sealed in and your bills manageable. Cracks, though, require a bit more effort. They require caulking with a silicone-based caulk that rodents will not be able to detect as easily.

fireplace

Hire someone to service your fireplace and heater. Image: Elms Interior Design

Service your heater and fireplace

On a cold, winter day, the last thing you want is to discover that your main heat source is broken. With that in mind, it’s crucial to take care of home maintenance before disaster strikes. Take time in the fall – before bitter temps truly hit – to have your heater and fireplace serviced. That way, you can make sure that your family stays warm all winter long.

How: Normally, we’re all for going DIY, but this is one place where it’s truly worth it to bring in the professionals. They’ll be able to safely inspect your fireplace and chimney from the roof, as well as to really understand the inner workings of your heating unit. On your end, just be sure to get on the schedule for an appointment early in the season. That way, you won’t have to risk encountering a problem while you’re waiting to be seen.

landscaping

Make sure to prune your landscaping. Image: Greenhaven Landscapes Inc

Prune and rake your landscaping

Yes, the leaves on your landscaping will fall off on their own, but nearly all prudent gardening advice recommends pruning them anyway. If you do so, they will have much better growth the following spring. Additionally, though it may be a hassle to keep up with on a regular basis, you really should dispose of the leaves on your lawn rather than letting them decompose naturally. Choosing not to rake could inhibit your grass growth next year.

How: Fall pruning is a much more laid-back exercise than it is in the spring, Rather than chopping back entire sections, simply remove dead sections. It’s important to note that it’s best to prune plants after they’ve entered their winter dormancy period, so don’t be afraid to leave this task until the end of the season, just before winter temperatures really hit.

The post Fall is Coming: Follow This Ultimate Fall Home Maintenance Checklist To Keep Your Family Cozy All Season Long appeared first on Freshome.com.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SKÅDIS: 5 ways to make the IKEA pegboard even better

IKEA introduced its own pegboard system, SKÅDIS, two years ago and I’d say it’s one of the best systems IKEA launched in recent years. I love how super customisable it is, with a growing range of accessories that help keep things organized. It works everywhere, in your wardrobe to bathroom . Probably anywhere you have a flat surface to hang it up. Photo: IKEA.com SKÅDIS pegboard system See it on IKEA.com But no matter how perfect a system, you can trust IKEA hackers to improve on the SKÅDIS. And they’ve settle these 5 issues you may have faced with the handy IKEA pegboard. Read on for their fixes. 5 IKEA SKÅDIS issues and fixes #1 Expensive hooks? You’ll need quite a number of hooks and accessories to fill up the SKÅDIS pegboard, and Kenyer was shocked at how quickly they all added up. So he figured he could make his own hooks to save cost. Photo: Kenyer Over at Instructables , he shows us how to twist copper wires into the SKÅDIS hook shape. It works s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Enjoy Sweet Dreams With These DIY Headboard Ideas

A headboard is one of the last things you see before you fall asleep and one of the first things you see when you wake up. Demonstrate your unique design style by creating your own. Below are some ideas and tips to get you started. Do you think the formula for sleep is on this London bedroom’s headboard? Image: Clifton Interiors Ltd Chalk headboard Create this look with a can of black chalkboard paint. Almost any type of wall – drywall, plaster, wood, brick or concrete – will work, as long is it is properly prepped. Chalkboard paint is easy to apply, dries fast and can be cleaned with soap and water. But you’re not limited to the color black – chalkboard paint comes in just about every color. If you don’t want to use paint, consider chalkboard contact paper – and yes, you can use chalk on it. An Edmonton hockey-themed room. Image: Cameron Homes Hockey goal headboard For the ultimate hockey fan, nothing beats a hockey goal headboard. Complete the scene with a team blank...
Post a Comment
Read more

A beautiful design idea for the IVAR cabinet with doors

A wall of IVAR cabinets with doors engraved is astonishingly captivating. Because IVAR is real solid wood (unlike a lot of flat-pack cupboards), it makes a great blank canvas for CNC machining work and engraving. IKEA items used: IKEA IVAR cabinets in 30mm (12″) and 50mm (20″) depths. IVAR cabinet | IKEA.com Other materials and tools: CNC Router How to engrave the IVAR cabinet with doors: Build a wall of IVAR cabinets to your preference. It’s not too difficult to shorten some in order to fill a wall exactly. I shortened the top row to 695mm and reduced the depth of the middle column to 40mm to create a 50/40/30 sequence so that I didn’t block the window but maximised storage capacity. Take a drawing, trace it in Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator into a black-only flat design. You can simplify the path at this point to reduce the time needed to engrave. Chop up the drawing in Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator into door-sized sections. Save as an SVG. Import the ...
Post a Comment
Read more