Spring Home Maintenance Checklist
Spring has sprung! Birds are chirping, showers are falling, and green sprouts are pushing their way through the damp soil. This means it’s also time to perform certain annual maintenance tasks. Although this is not a complete spring home maintenance checklist, these are important tasks to address each year.
Air Conditioning Maintenance
It’s the right time of year to start hearing this question: “When do you turn on your air conditioning?”
Temperatures are already rising in North Carolina, for sure, and here is the recommendation of EnergyStar.gov: “ Maintain your equipment to prevent future problems and unwanted costs. Keep your cooling and heating system at peak performance by having a contractor do annual pre-season check-ups. Contractors get busy once summer and winter come, so it’s best to check the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall.”
To boost your ability to cool your home economically, consider also installing ceiling fans in strategic locations in your home.
Window Screen and Door Screen Repair
It can be wonderful to allow the fresh breezes of spring to waft through your home after a long winter – but you don’t want the bugs to join in the festivities. So, it’s time to examine all your screens and decide which ones need patched and which ones need replaced. If you need to replace some, save the old screens for patch material in the future. Check the hardware while you’re at it, replacing those that are broken or missing. Lubricate hinges and tighten as needed.
Roof Maintenance
This is the ideal time of year to check your roof, along with gutters and downspouts, to locate any damage done during winter weather. Inspecting them from the ground is a good first step, but you’ll want to have someone with experience actually go onto the roof to look for shingles that were damaged, along with ones that are loose or even missing. At the same time, the professional can check for flashing damage around chimneys, vents and so forth. It’s important to make sure that gutters and downspouts are working optimally, not loose or leaking – or even blocked up.
Clean Siding and/or Repair Paint
You want the exterior of your house to look good in the spring, so now is the time to clean the siding and either repaint or touch up any painted areas. If wood is left exposed, then rot can set in, which becomes an expensive situation to address. So, scrape off any places where paint is peeling and touch up those areas. Or, for even better curb appeal, you can repaint all the wood areas of your home’s exterior.
Driveway and Sidewalk Maintenance
As temperatures rise and fall, concrete and asphalt freezes and thaws. This can lead to damage in your driveways and sidewalks, as well as other pathways on your property. Another cause of damage: the chemicals used to thaw the ice to keep people from slipping and sliding in wintry weather. Melting water only adds to the problem, saturating the area. So, do a walk-around inspection, noting where repairs need made. Sometimes cracked and damaged areas can be patched while, other times, material needs replaced for safety reasons.
Reminder! Change Smoke Detector Batteries
Perhaps, when Daylight Savings Time kicked in, you changed the batteries. If not, it’s probably time to change them. When it comes to smoke detectors, you want to change them before they stop working – and it makes good sense to test them monthly. This may be the time to add even more smoke detectors to your house. You should have at least one on every floor of your home, including in the areas outside the bedrooms. Consider also putting one in each individual bedroom for added protection.
And, as another reminder, it’s time to get your grill in great shape to enjoy outdoor cookouts. Enjoy the season!
General Handyman Services in Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina
What we’ve provided is just a partial list of tasks that belong on an annual spring home maintenance checklist. And, we know that, sometimes, you need some help in getting them all accomplished. In the Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina areas, you can contact Camden Roofing & Construction for these general handyman services.
We have the time, we have the tools and we have the expertise to tackle your spring home maintenance checklist. Contact us online or call us at 704-858-2141 today.
(Featured Image: Photo by Taduuda on Unsplash)