A Homeowner’s Essential Spring Maintenance Checklist

How-To

As the temps begin to rise and the sun starts to set later in the evenings, following an essential spring maintenance checklist will make sure your home is in opportune shape coming out of the winter season.

Here are a few things to assess for a spring refresh:

Clean Gutters

Cleaning your gutters should never be overlooked for spring maintenance, especially in the spring. Warmer weather often brings heavy rain and if your gutters are clogged with debris, they won’t be able to properly filter water away from your house. Clogged gutters can lead to water damage like leaky roofs and mold, and create homes for unwanted creatures to nest.

Repair broken screen doors and window screens

A broken window screen. — _{Photo Credit: Getty Images}

Window and door screens allow outside air in, while also keeping bugs and pests from entering your home. Before you put your screen windows and doors back on in the spring, make sure you repair any tears or replace them altogether. Besides the functional benefits of screen doors and windows, keeping them in top shape helps boost curb appeal.

Clean your window shutters and windows

A homeowner cleaning her windows with a rag. — _{Photo Credit: Getty Images}

Once you replace your windows with screens, it’s time to pay attention to your shutters if you have them. The best way to care for shutters is to remove them from your windows completely and clean them separately on the ground. Keep in mind that modern shutters are permanently installed, making removal almost impossible for a homeowner. And cleaning second floor shutters would probably necessitate a ladder. You can use your regular garden hose to wash them and a cloth and cleaning solution to wipe them down. Then, if you’re looking for a fun project to give your house a little facelift, you’re ready to paint your shutters and give them an entirely new look.

Cleaning your windows once or twice a year is plenty, but the most popular time to complete this task is during the spring. It’s prime time for pollen, grime, and debris from the winter to pile up on the window glass and inside the frame. Be sure to wait until all trees have bloomed before you embark on this spring maintenance project, otherwise, you’ll have to clean off a fresh layer of pollen as soon as the next day.

Switch the direction of your ceiling fans

A ceiling fan spinning. — _{Photo Credit: Getty Images}

It’s advantageous to run your ceiling fan during the cold winter months. Located on the base of your ceiling fan, there is a small switch that changes the direction of the fan’s rotors. Remember, heat naturally rises, so by simply reversing the fan’s direction to a clockwise rotation, you redirect warm air back down and into your living space. When temperatures begin rising in the spring, switch your ceiling fan back to moving in a counterclockwise direction. This will create the cooling, breezy effect homeowners are accustomed to.

Focus on your landscaping

A homeowner tending to their old landscaping. — _{Photo Credit: Getty Images}

Landscaping projects may seem daunting, but there are simple ways to refresh your lawn, from planting new flowers (or rearranging your flower beds), adding new planters to frame your entryway, and using stones or rocks to create borders around sections of your gardens.

In the spring and summer months, the front lawns of neighborhoods come alive with budding flowers and newly planted shrubbery. As things grow, make sure you are constantly assessing anything that might pose a risk of damaging the exterior of your home. Pull back any shrubbery that could brush up against your siding, rip your window screens, deposit leaves in your gutters, or pose a risk with any overgrown or dead tree limbs. This type of initial spring maintenance is critical in the upkeep and safety of your home’s exterior.

Wash siding and inspect for foundational damage

A homeowner washing their siding with a pressure washer. — _{Photo Credit: Getty Images}

Washing your home’s siding is best done when the weather is not too hot or too cold, making spring the ideal season. Cleaning reduces the likelihood of mildew, mold and other unwanted damage to your home. This is also the time to inspect your home’s foundation. Foundation cracks and warping are often the result of your foundation yielding to excess moisture, shifting soil, or tree roots. When you see common signs of foundation damage, such as gaps between crown molding and the ceiling, sunken or sloping floors, and doors and windows sticking shut, contact a professional right away; the earlier you address this type of damage, the easier and more affordable it will be to repair.

Inspect and prepare for a roof repair

Handling roof repairs is a project that’s safest and best completed by a professional; however, the spring season is a great time to prioritize inspections and set yourself up for a successful project later in the year. If you’re able to easily and safely access your roof, take a look around and investigate for damage. You should be on the lookout for things like: mold or leaks (which can seep their way down into the foundational structure of your home); missing or damaged shingles — common after winter storms (shingles are essential to replace to prevent additional damage to lower layers on your roof); or damage to roof accessories like your drip edge (which help prevent leaking behind gutters and into the home).

Audit your home’s efficiency

We all think about our ecological footprint on Earth Day (April 22). It’s a great reminder of all the ways our home uses energy — and how we can improve that efficiency. Walk around your home and conduct an audit of important adjustments you can make to improve your home’s energy-efficiency and help your family save on utility bills.

For example, haven’t replaced those drafty windows since you moved in 10 years ago? Mark it down that you need to swap them for energy-efficient windows, which help prevent cold and heat transference and protect the interior of your home from UV rays.

Then head up to your attic. For most of us, it’s an extra space to store all of our unused junk. But take note of what’s going on upstairs beyond the storage containers. Without proper insulation, your attic could be creating a money pit for you, allowing your winter heating and summer air conditioning to escape through structural cracks you didn’t even know existed, making your HVAC system work harder and causing foundational issues like wood rot and mold growth.

After reading this checklist, have you uncovered any issues on your home? If so, check out POWER’s exterior offerings.

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