Top 5 Fall Home Care Tips

By Ryan Dosen

 

Summer has gone the way of the ghost, and now enters what I believe to be the most beautiful of all our seasons. Welcome are the cooler temperatures and the beautiful, colorful transformations of our landscape; but there is much to be done in addition to stimulating our senses.

Fall is a pleasant prelude to the often disagreeable doings of the winter months. A little preparation now can save a lot of headaches in the future. So, let’s take a quick look at some of the things that should be on your fall to-do list.

 

Repair Cracks

We live in an area in which we can see several freezes and thaws during the winter months. These repeated freezes and thaws can destroy a driveway or walkway. Water and moisture seeps into a driveway’s small cracks when it rains or when snow and slush thaws. If the temp drops below freezing while those cracks are filled with water, the water will expand when it turns to ice. This expansion applies pressure and further damages your driveway.

This fall, be sure that you clean out and repair any cracks with driveway filler and then coat the driveway with a commercial sealer.

 

Clean Your Gutters and Downspouts

After they fall, some of those beautifully-colored leaves can wind up clogging your home’s gutters and downspouts. Left unchecked, those clogged gutters can lead to damaged exterior surfaces, water in your basement, and super-sized ice dams. Ice dams are ridges of ice that build up along the edge of your roof, preventing melting ice from draining off (and eventually leading to more and more ice accumulating on your roof).

By the time winter hits, you need to make sure that your gutters and downspouts are clear of debris so that water and melted ice can flow easily off your roof. If dams are created, the extra weight can damage your roof. The retained water can also work its way under the shingles and cause greater damage by either re-freezing or by leaking through walls and into your home.

 

Seal Your Windows

Caulking and sealing the openings around your windows and door frames is a fairly simple and inexpensive job. It is also one that can save you a decent amount of money in the winter by improving the insulation of your home.

Before winter hits, make sure that you give your windows and door frames a once-over to make sure that your precious heated air doesn’t escape into the frigid outdoors.

 

Service Your Furnace

It’s generally considered good practice to have your heating system checked every year by a licensed heating professional. Properly serviced appliances run smoother and more efficiently, costing you less money and helping you avoid Uncle Murphy’s tendency to cause problems at the worst possible time. Don’t roll the dice. Especially after last winter. Get your heating system checked so that you know it’ll be running right this winter. You may even be able to get a deal by getting it done before the winter rush.

 

Clean and Prepare Yard Equipment

You’ll thank yourself next spring if you take a little bit of time to clean your lawn mowers, leaf blowers, and trimmers before storing them for the winter. In addition to regular cleaning, Bob Vila recommends draining fuel from all gas operated equipment before it is stowed away. You should also make sure you have all your winter equipment ready and in working order. Shovels, snow blowers, and the like should be tested, present, and accounted for.

You may also want to buy some bags of rock salt. That stuff sells out quickly. Thinking ahead will give you peace of mind and let you avoid scrambling when the inevitable snow storms strike.

 

Be Proactive

There are no startling revelations on this list. That said, most of us will fail to do most of these things until a problem arises this coming winter. Don’t procrastinate this time. Just get it done. The gutters and the clean-up have to wait a bit, but you can start the other stuff right away. You’ll be really glad you did. And when that winter weather hits, you’ll be even gladder.

My big fall task and winter prep item this year is to get a generator. Every year we face the same question: Do we finally pull the trigger and get ourselves a generator? And every year we don’t do it. And every year we lose power. And every year I kick myself for not getting that stupid generator. Maybe this will finally be the year. But with a little girl coming in February, I have this strange feeling that my generator is going to wind up looking more like a crib and a gaggle of pink clothes….

 

— Ryan Dosen manages The Wayne Megill Real Estate Team of Keller Williams Brandywine Valley in West Chester. Contact Ryan Dosen for buyer or seller representation or for more perspective on the local and national real estate market by emailing rdosen@megillhomes.com or calling 610-399-0338. Please also visit The Wayne Megill Team blog at www.PAHomesAndRealEstate.com.

 

This article was published by 21st Century Media and the Daily Local News (West Chester, PA). To read this article on the the newspaper’s site, please visit the Daily Local News.

 

To view all of Ryan Dosen’s 21st Century Media real estate columns, visit http://www.dailylocal.com/search?text=dosen.