Save Money with Fall Exterior Home Maintenance

Do you pay attention to exterior home maintenance? You should. Taking care of small repairs as the need for them arises makes your house look nicer and helps to make it more livable. It also heads problems off at the pass and avoids big, expensive repairs down the road.

Fall is an excellent time for exterior home care. The summer heat that can make it a trial has passed, and you’re battening down the hatches for winter, when snow, freezing temperatures, and high winds can stress a house and turn any existing vulnerabilities into full-fledged expensive repair issues.

Here, then, are three fall exterior home care tips to help you put your house in good shape to withstand the rigors of the season to come.

Fall Exterior Home Maintenance Tip #1: Clean the Rain Gutters

Fall brings the leaves falling from the trees around your home. You see them on your lawn every day and likely get rid of the pileup there. But because you don’t see them, you may well be less conscious that autumn leaves are also collecting overhead in your rain gutters.

That’s a problem because once gutters get clogged with debris, they don’t function as they’re supposed to conducting rainwater and melt water to their intended destination. The water accumulates to ultimately spill out and collect around the base of the house. From there, it can seep through cracks in the foundation. Additionally, gutters that are holding water can be a source of rot, compromise the roof, and form ice dams when the temperature is low enough.

Happily, the answer is relatively simple if not the pleasantest task in the world. Someone needs to climb up on a ladder and clear away the accumulation of leaves from the rain gutters.

Or, as an alternative, you can invest in a gutter guard. This is a protection system that keeps leaves from collecting in rain gutters in the first place. Thus no gutter cleaning is necessary.

Fall Exterior Home Maintenance Tip #2: Check Your Window and Door Seals

You have window and door seals partly to hold warm air indoors when it’s cold outside. When they leak, they don’t do that, and then you wonder why it’s so chilly in the house and your heating bills are so high.

To spare yourself this sad fate, inspect the caulking and weather stripping on your windows and doors. If they’re no longer intact and doing their intended job, replace them before autumn turns to winter.

Fall Exterior Home Maintenance Tip #3: Check the Roof

Somebody should get up on your roof and inspect it twice a year, one time in the fall. It’s highly desirable to catch any problems before winter snows cover the roof and make it difficult to repair.

Not everyone is comfortable with heights or physically able to perform this exterior home care task him- or herself. But if you can’t attend to it yourself, it’s important that you find a trusted friend of an exterior home maintenance professional to attend to it for you. Problems that go unattended can worsen und spread until you need a complete roof replacement, and that’s expensive.

When checking a roof, you should look for rotten, damaged, or missing shingles, loose flashing, and signs of water damage. Some of these may be problems you’re willing and able to fix yourself. But if they aren’t, you can once again turn to the pros.

The experts at Stay Dry Roofing will be happy to help you with this or any of your fall exterior home maintenance needs. We offer free inspections and guarantee our work. Contact us today if we can be of assistance.