Fall is here! As the weather begins to cool off, we’d like to remind you of the routine maintenance that should be performed on your home. This maintenance will help lower energy bills during the cold season as well as save you the time, effort, and investment of future home repair.
To keep your home functioning at its best, follow these 11 fall home maintenance tips.
- Check every smoke/carbon monoxide detector for functionality. Replace batteries with the time change.
- Open the humidifier damper and clean the humidifier.
- Clean/change the furnace air filter.
- Remove air supply grills and vacuum inside ducts. Use caution when reaching inside ducts—sharp screws are used to attach sections of pipe.
- Inspect weather-stripping around all doors. All doors will react differently with different seasons, so some minor adjustments to door catches may be needed to create a tighter seal between your door and weather-stripping.
- Do not cover your air conditioner. Covering your air conditioner is not necessary and can trap excess moisture.
- Make sure the ground around your home slopes away from the foundation. Minor settlement is normal, but you should fill in settled areas with dirt.
- Winterize your hose bibs. Disconnect the garden hoses from the outside faucets and drain and close your outside faucets from the manifold labeled in the basement. Once these steps are done, go outside and open all of the hose bibs to drain off any water in the pipes. Once all additional water has drained out, the hose bib can be closed again.
- Winterize your irrigation system using a licensed contractor.
- Clean leaves and any debris from eaves troughs, downspouts, and roofs to ensure proper drainage off roof and away from foundation.
- Make sure all eavestroughs and downspouts are clear from obstruction before the first freeze.
Do you have any fall maintenance tips to add to our list? Leave them in the comments!
