Fall isn’t too far off, so it’s time to prepare your home and garden for the winter months ahead! Here is your fall home maintenance checklist for your custom house.
Clean the Gutters
Fall time means beautiful falling leaves. It also means gunked-up gutters. It can be easy to forget about gutters when they’re working properly and draining thousands of gallons of water from your roof yearly. But they will definitely need some TLC in the fall. Clogged rain gutters can cause ice dams, which can lead to expensive repairs and damaged exteriors. After you enjoy the falling leaves, clean your gutters to remove twigs, leaves, and other gunk. Make sure the gutters aren’t sagging and trapping water. If they feel a little loose while you’re cleaning them, tighten gutter hangers and downspout brackets.
Lawn and Garden Maintenance
This is the time to prepare your lawn and garden for the Colorado winter ahead. An early fall priority should be to drain garden hoses and store them in your garage. Hoses that stay attached to faucets outside throughout the winter can cause water to back up into the plumbing pipes inside your interior walls. This water could freeze, expand, and crack the faucet or pipes.
Speaking of freezing pipes, if you have an irrigation system, be sure to blow out the pipes. Irrigation lines can also freeze and cause pipes to burst and sprinkler heads to break – even the ones buried underground.
Don’t forget your lawn! Fall is a great time to aerate your lawn and let it get some much-needed moisture and nutrients. After you aerate, spread fertilizer and grass seeds so your lawn comes back nicely in the spring. Also, take the time to prune plants, remove dead annuals, mulch perennials, and plant bulbs that will pop up in the spring (like daffodils!).
Check Your Furnace
Now is the time to schedule an appointment with a heating and cooling professional for service. Getting your HVAC system checked is important so that it can continue to run smoothly. You don’t want to wait until it’s below freezing to find out there’s a problem with your heating system.
Don’t forget to change out your filters too! You should change out your air filters about every three months. It catches all the dirt, debris, and pollutants in your home so you breathe clean air. If you don’t change your air filters, you’ll start breathing in all the gross stuff it’s supposed to catch but can’t. Add this to your home maintenance list, and you’ll stay breathing easy.
Test Your Smoke Detectors
Since you’re checking everything to make sure it’s in working order, add your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide devices to the list. The safety of you, your family, and your home is dependent on these devices, so it’s important to make sure they’re in good working order. If you just moved into your new custom house, test the devices to make sure they’re alert and working. If you’ve been in your home for a while, it might be worth it to just go ahead and change the batteries for all the devices now. Better to do it in the middle of the day than be woken up by the chirping of a smoke detector with low batteries!
Get Your Property Ready for Snow
When we reach fall time in Colorado, we know the snow isn’t too far behind. So before the snow flies and you start using your snow blower, take some time to ready your property. Remove rocks, dog tie-out cables, extension cords, and holiday light cords. Then stake out paths that run near your garden so you don’t accidentally suck up rocks and garden edging. Mark your walkway perimeters by pounding in markers as well.
And don’t forget to check to see if your snow equipment is up and running. If it’s in good working condition, organize your snow-clearing gear in an easy-to-access spot. That way, when snow arrives, you can easily grab shovels, roof rakes, and snow blowers. If they’re not in good working condition, at least you’ll have some time to get them repaired or purchase replacements before the cold comes in.
Ready for Your Dream Custom House?
We hope this fall home maintenance checklist helps your ready your home for the upcoming cold months! If you’re thinking about starting the process of building a custom house, Ridgeline Homes is ready to get serious with you. We’d love to help create your dream home and show you how simple and enjoyable custom homeownership can be. We’re based in Montrose, Colorado, and are ready to start this exciting process with you.
