Spring Checklist: Protecting Your Home from the Outside In

Intro: 00:00:01

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Jamie: 00:00:21

Good morning, everybody. Good day to you. Today we are going to talk about exterior maintenance. Now, we just experienced some major rain in the Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio area.

I mean, it hung over and it just rained and rained and rained. No doubt you experienced something with this, whether it was flooding or standing water or something like that.

So that's one of the things we're going to discuss today. But let's talk overall about exterior maintenance.

Basically, this is a spring maintenance checklist, and it's just something you need to do every year as part of a responsible homeowner. The more you let it go, the worse it's going to get.

If you don't take care of that little deterioration in a wood deck now, by fall, it's going to be worse and so forth. And so why do I say that? Because I'm speaking to myself.

Because I have joists on my deck, I have flooring on the deck, I have a door, I have trim that needs work. All those little things, if you don't want to do them yourself, at least get somebody else to do them for you.

But let's dive into some exterior maintenance tips today. Number one, roof and gutters. This is where it all starts, right? This is what's protecting your home from water entry.

It's what's getting water away from the foundation. So inspect for missing or damaged shingles, especially after you've had high wind in the winter and then storms and whatnot, check those roofs.

If you can't see all of your roofs naturally from the ground, you may need to hire somebody to go up and do a good roof inspection to make sure you don't have anything that that blew off or came loose or a nail popped or anything like that. Clean your gutters, hand downspouts, ensure proper drainage. You want to divert that water away from the house.

You don't want it sitting against your house. The soil gets saturated, it won't go anywhere, and it's going to create excess pressure on your foundation walls.

It's going to want to go in through any little crack that it finds. So even if you have cracks in your foundation that wouldn't necessarily be structurally significant, it can still get water in there.

If you have a finished basement, seepage behind finished Walls is almost always going to lead to mold. So make sure you're getting that water away from the house as you can.

And on your roof or early on your siding, check for moss or algae growth and treat that as needed. Moss and algae is going to build up.

If you have an area that's maybe north facing or you have a lot of trees overhanging, and as that builds up, it keeps water from cascading off like it should, it can back up. It can eat away at your shingles. It's going to deteriorate them before they should be done. So get that moss and algae off of there.

I would not recommend pressure washing it. That's a bad idea because you're going to tend to make things worse.

But you can use products you can spray on there that work with the rainwater to kind of create a sulfate on there that will not allow further growth and will help to remove the growth that you have. So roof and gutters start there. Siding and exterior walls, look for cracks, peeling paint or damage.

If you can see the basement concrete walls sticking up above the grass, make sure you're looking at any. Maybe there's some new cracks, maybe something shifted.

If you have clay soil and you have long periods of dryness and then you get a lot of rain, it can swell it up and you can get cracks.

So look for any kind of that peeling paint or damage to your trim all around the windows, around the doors, and make sure that all that is fixed, because those are the things. Trim looks pretty, but it also has a function. It's keeping the water out of your house. So you want to make sure your trim's in good shape.

Power washing siding and decks. I mentioned not wanting to power wash your roof, and that is right. But it's okay to power wash siding in moderation.

You don't want to do it too heavy because you can still drive moisture in through it. I would not power wash brick.

I would stick to wood and vinyl just because you can, you can force that water in through the brick and then it's going to stay in there. It might seed back out eventually, but not a very good idea. And then check for signs of pests or moisture intrusion.

We have seen homes where a squirrel or a chipmunk have literally chewed holes in through the vinyl siding into an attic. So look for any kind of hole that shouldn't be there. Look for any kind of signs of pest activity.

If you have wood siding, it could be that woodpeckers have decided that this is their home and they're going to make their mark and then they're going after bugs or whatnot in the sighting. And so look for any kind of that, things like that that you would need to seal shut. And then your windows and doors. Just clean the windows and doors.

If you like looking out dirty windows, that's great. I'm not telling you to clean them because of that.

What I am telling you, if you don't clean your windows and screens, it's going to be hard to operate them over time. I did a inspection recently on a house that was 24 years old with the crank out style windows, casement windows.

They had not been used in a long time. And out of probably 30 windows, this was a large house. I would say well over half of them did not work, didn't open, stuck in the frame.

And I think a lot of it is just simply because they have not been cleaned and they haven't been used. It's like the old adage, use it or lose it. So open your windows, clean all around the tracks, the sills, the hardware. Use a dry lubricant on that.

A Wet lubricant like WD40 will attract dirt. You don't want that. But use a lubricant that will keep things operating well.

Inspect the seals, look for caulking and damage and so forth just to make sure nothing's seeping in. And then lubricate as needed. And then foundation and drainage. We touched on this with sighting, but check for foundation, cracks or movement.

Ensure proper grainage drainage. I'm trying to stay grading and drainage at the same time. So like anything, things change over the winter.

You get that frost heave, then it settles well. Now all of a sudden you got a low spot next to your house for whatever reason.

And it depends a lot about how they backfilled it when they built the house, what they might have buried in the yard. Sometimes contractors will bury all their junk left over in the yard and that will deteriorate and settle over time.

And all of a sudden you have a low spot in your yard that you don't want. So test the sump pump and the battery backup if applicable. Chances are by now if your sump pump doesn't work, you know about it.

But it doesn't hurt to check those every now and then just to make sure that they're working as they should. And then check your deck, patio and the walkways. Decks.

Decks are awesome until you have to do some maintenance on them or they don't hold like they should. So look for any loose boards, look for cracks, uneven surfaces. A lot of times you'll have maybe weaknesses in the joists.

One spot or two will deteriorate and now your flooring compressed down into it. Water gets in around where the screw holes have gone in or the screws have gone in, or where the the joints come together on the flooring.

And anything that's uneven or a hazard or popped nails or screws, you want to assess those and get those fixed so you have a nice smooth deck surface.

Because typically when you're on the deck, you're out there in the summer, you could have bare feet and you don't want any splinters, you don't want any screws going to anybody's toes or anything like that. Certainly power washing a deck can be valuable. Just know that when you power wash it, you're driving water into those boards.

And if you're power washing it, it's going to at least be a few really good drying days before you're ready to restain that deck.

So if you're going to plan on restaining it and you want to power wash it, just make sure you have that time frame between the two and then repair any damaged pavers or concrete. Concrete can settle, flat surface concrete.

And if there's offsets in the sidewalk or the driveway, you want to get those leveled, you're going to need to get a concrete pumping company to come and pump that so that it can be leveled and then simply lawn and landscaping. One thing we always do every spring is our lawn. We will aerate the lawn, take a mower, aerate it.

That provides avenues for oxygenation and moisture to kind of just loosens the lawn a little bit. And we have found that it's been a benefit. Rake the leaves, remove debris, and aerate the lawn. So rake leaves.

Some even had those trees that maybe they didn't drop their leaves until mid December. Some of those trees are like that. And if that's the case, you want to get those raked up, especially if they're around the house.

If they're around the house and they build up plus moisture, you can get critters living in there. And it just creates a poor drying condition. So you want to get that figured out. Check your sprinkler system for leaks or clogged heads.

We have a company that does this for us, but if you're adept at this and can do it, do it yourself. But inevitably, every year, sprinkler heads have tilted, they've gotten clogged.

Most sprinkler systems are only installed about 8 to 12 inches below the ground level. And so they're going to be subject to damage from frost. And so frost, when it heaves, it twists things, it moves things sideways.

And so especially if you have sprinkler heads near the driveway, as people have driven in and out of your driveway, maybe their tires go on the lawn just a little bit. The ones right next to the driveway tend to get damaged. And so you want to look for that before you just turn it on and leave it.

And trim trees and bushes away from the home and power lines. You're at the time of year where your trees are really going to start growing.

So you want to make sure that any branches that are close to the house now, you trim them back so when they do grow, they don't grow into your house. Now, if it's too big, if it's overhead, that's something best left to the professionals.

We don't want anybody to get hurt doing this, but we also don't want that ornamental tree growing into the side of your house. And the wind blows, and it rubs a hole in your siding, which we've seen happen many times out or onto the power line.

So finally, with spring maintenance, and this is more of an interior, we're going to transition briefly into interior maintenance. But change your H vac. H vac filters and service that air conditioner. That air conditioner, I took mine apart last summer.

I hadn't cleaned it for a while, and it looked like there was a carpet growing on it. And I don't know how it even ran. But that's going to make it more efficient. It's going to be easier on the unit itself.

And so clean the air conditioner. We have video on our website that can help you show how to do that if that's something that you want to do by yourself. Interior maintenance.

A couple of things. When's the last time you looked under your sinks? Probably been a while. Look on your sinks for leaks.

Fill up the sink, let it drain all at once, and see if you have any leaks. Inspect your water heater for leaks or corrosion. Even. Even more rare than looking under your sinks probably is checking out your water heater.

Unless it's right in a main pathway of where you walk all the time. So look for corrosion, look for leaks. Test the water pressure. Clean your faucet aerators, especially if you have well water.

Over time, the aerators get clogged up with sediment, and then you don't get the airflow. The water flow that you need. Maybe your shower doesn't feel as vigorous as it used to.

So check those aerators and then in the basement or attic and basement, look for signs of moisture leaks or pests. Not a bad idea to have your attic and foundation checked maybe professionally every year to look for signs of leaks.

You can have a leak going on the attic literally for months or years before you notice it. And then it's a huge problem because you're not looking at your roof every day. You're not seeing what happens up there.

So get a professional to come in and do that. And then also safety checks. Test your smoke and co detectors. Replace the batteries.

We go into homes where the smoke detectors have kind of turned yellow. They started off white and now they're yellow. It's time to replace those. You should replace.

They recommend you replace these smoke and co detectors every five to seven years. So make sure if you're not replacing them, at least you're getting fresh batteries in.

Don't wait till that chirp wakes you up at 2 in the morning and then you have to yank it off the wall or the ceiling and then it never goes back up. We've seen that plenty of times. So check your fire extinguishers. Make sure you know where they are.

Make sure everybody in your family has a plan of attack. If there is a fire, make sure they are in good working order. If they're too old, get rid of them. Get a new one.

Review emergency plans and your first aid kits. This is just a good time of year to do this, so. And then just general cleaning and organization. Deep clean the carpets, the floors, the upholstery.

If you're like us, when you clean your carpets, you're shocked at the yuck that comes out of the water that you dump out of that. Especially if you have pets and they come in with all their glory and plop down on the carpet.

You think you got the stain up, but really it's just a ball of mud and hair under the surface. So deep clean your carpets, your floors, your upholstery, declutter closets and storage areas.

We had a podcast earlier on the mental health benefits of decluttering. And so go for it. Do that. Get rid of stuff you don't need. You take a big sigh of relief and then rotate your mattress and check for signs of bed bugs.

Rotating mattresses is the way to get them to last longer, simply because you're not depressing in the same spot all the time and creating that dip. I know mattress companies will guarantee that's not going to happen, but it still does. So rotate them and check for any signs of bed bugs.

If you have a question on if you have bed bugs or not, call a professional out. You definitely don't want those things getting started in your home, so so just some tips to go through for spring maintenance.

If you have a question about this, or if you just want to have a professional come do a good walk through to give you some tips on your house and look for any signs of major problems, give us a call. We'd be glad to help. Otherwise, have a great day out there. Stay safe and we'll talk to you later.

Intro: 00:15:24

Thank you for listening. This week you can catch up on the latest episode of the Thoughts from the Crawl Space podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

For more information about Gold Key Inspection Services, go to goldkeyinspect. Com.