Fall Maintenance: 10 Tasks to Prepare Your Home for Winter

Fall has arrived!

Overly hot, sunny, and humid days are starting to get replaced with overcast clouds and a much crisper breeze on your face. Leaves are turning from varying shades of green to bright reds, oranges, and yellows, just waiting to drop from their trees for the season. It’s the time where nature slows and starts to hunker down to prepare for the winter ahead. It’s the perfect time for homeowners to do the same thing with their homes. 

Not sure where to start? We are here to help.

1. Roof Check

There’s nowhere better to start than right at the top—literally! Potential problems with the roof could lead to bigger problems all throughout your home, so it’s important to catch them as early as possible. Say there was a small hole, gap, or tear in your roofing and it rains for multiple days straight. Where is the water going? Odds are that it’s going to get caught in the attic, the walls, or wherever else it may flow. You could possibly get lucky and see where the leak was as it happens, but in all likelihood you’d miss some. Excess moisture leads to mold, and that’s the last thing you want creeping anywhere in your home. Nip it in the bud early and start with the roof. 

2. Gutters

While you’re up checking on your roof, take a good look at your gutters too. Are they full of debris from summer storms? Have leaves started to fill them up already? Gutters that are full and/or blocked cannot do the job they are there for. Instead of directing the water to the appropriate area, the downspouts, it will begin to overflow from all directions. That means excess water flowing onto your foundation, your siding, and your roof. It’s just asking for water damage and a homeowner headache! Clear out your gutters early and often to help negate any risk. There are also clog resistant gutter guards that you could have installed to minimize the effort needed and help keep peace of mind. You will still need to check to make sure they are working as they should every so often, but that’s a fair trade off to not having to clean them out yourself!

3. Downspouts

We can’t mention gutter maintenance without also mentioning downspout maintenance as well. Taking care of them is not  nearly as intensive as the gutters, but downspouts are just as important in the role that they play to protect your home. If they are clogged from previous gutter debris, water will flow back upward and you will have the same problem as the clogged gutters themselves. Water everywhere! The same goes for if the downspout is misaligned at ground level. Making sure that the pipe is lined up at the gap area of the downspout is the difference between water flowing downward where it should vs. into the ground/foundation. It’s a small thing to check for, but can make a big impact if unnoticed.

4. Exterior Chimney Check

Don’t do this one yourself! Part of getting your fireplace ready for the Winter starts outside with a licensed chimney sweep. Hire a professional to get your chimney cleared out of any possible flammable residue or debris that may been acquired throughout the year. There’s probably not much in there, if anything, but you’d hate to find out the alternative the hard way! 

5. Interior Fireplace Check

When you hire the professional chimney sweep for the exterior, have them take a glance at the interior while they’re at it. They should be able to see any small details or imperfections in the fireplace that could cause possible problems, like cracks or gaps that could let smoke or fire seep through. Make sure to keep the fireplace itself as clean and tidy as you are able. It doesn’t have to be completely sootless and spotless, but clean enough to see what’s going on in there clearly and catch potential issues immediately.

6. HVAC Maintenance

Temperatures dropping means that your HVAC unit being in tip-top shape is imperative! Especially the furnace, depending on where you live in the world. Most HVAC companies will offer maintenance checks seasonally to confirm that everything is in working order for the unit, but even if they don’t, getting an inspection by a professional is worth knowing that you’ll be warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Additionally, you will need to keep an eye on the filter and change it out as needed yourself throughout the year. Usually it’ll need changed after a few months, when the filter is full and air cannot pass freely or easily through it. Your HVAC professional can show you how and let you know what filter will work best for your unit. 

7. Pantry Clean Out

Out with the old—literally! The fall is a perfect time to take stock of what you have in your pantry and make a plan for the winter on what you’ll need to keep on hand. Go through the expiration dates of your products and toss anything that may be outdated or not looking great. Reorganize your goods in a system that works best for you to know what you have and need at any given time so that you can keep stocked to the best of your ability. You don’t necessarily have to stuff the shelves, just make sure you’re good for a few snow days and any unforeseen circumstances. Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready! 

8. Pest Control & Maintenance

Some pests hibernate for the winter, but most start looking for a home inside when the cold air starts rolling in. Don’t let them make your home their new one! Hire a pest control company now to come out and spray for any unwanted pests that may begin to find themselves inside. Most pest control companies will also include preventative maintenance in their contracts so that they can come back and spray in a set timeframe, usually quarterly. Keeping a set schedule for maintenance will help negate as many critters inside as possible!

9. Landscaping

Keeping up with landscaping can be difficult in the summer for a few reasons. For some it’s solely the amount of time it takes to get it done, but for many others it’s the hot sun beating down on them that causes a lack of motivation to get out there. The fall is a perfect time to pick back up on any landscaping chores that need done, like cleaning out your garden beds, pulling weeds and other unwanted plants, lawn mowing, or cutting back trees and shrubbery. It’s also a great time to plant a fall garden—check out our blog about it here.

10. Prune Perennials

If your garden is all annual flowers and plants, and you aren’t planning on planting anything for the fall, your job outside is pretty much done for the season! If a lot of the plants in your garden are perennials, you’ll need to do a bit more maintenance before you call it quits until spring. Perennials, unlike annuals, continue to come back every year where you planted them. Later in the fall, after a few good frosts have killed the top plant and foliage has naturally died back, use pruners to cut the stem just above the crown of the plant. Leave a few inches of the stub to keep track of where everything is during the winter. You don’t necessarily have to do this, as the roots will remain and the plant will bloom again on its own, but cutting back the plant helps stop any possible diseases, pests, or unwanted self-seeding from happening. It’ll also help keep your garden tidy. As always, your mileage may vary. Some gardeners prefer to cut back perennials in the spring so that the dead leaves can help protect the plant through the winter. Always try for yourself and see what works best for your garden!


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