Seasonal Tips For Your Home
Prepare your home for the changing weather and temperatures with these quick tips.
Replace your furnace filter: A dirty filter will shorten the lifespan of your HVAC unit, and raise your monthly energy bills. You should replace your furnace filter whenever it gets dirty, which can mean every few months or even once a month. At a minimum, you should change your filter twice a year--once before winter and once before summer.
Protect your garden hose: Any water left in your hose will freeze and expand, putting pressure on your hose and your plumbing. The simple solution is to unscrew your hose, completely drain it, and store it in the garage for the winter. Ideally, you’ll want to store it off the ground.
Keep garage doors closed: Clear the snow away from your garage door so the door shuts all the way. If your garage door is open, all the cold air will come in and it's harder for your furnace to keep up.
Check your gutters: Debris in your gutter causes water to back up. In the winter that backup can freeze and result in ice dams, which can damage the roof of your home. In addition, the added weight of the ice can also cause gutters to pull away from the house.
Winterize your irrigation system: To minimize the risk of freeze damage, you'll need to winterize your irrigation system. Due to the potential dangers involved with winterization, it is best to call a professional. Most irrigation professionals run between $75 to $105 for this service.
***When temps drop below freezing you might see condensation on windows which is normal. Also, please keep vanity cabinetry doors open to provide warm air flow to pipes below the sink.
Winter
Spring
Clean out window wells: This one will take a bit of elbow grease. Get down in your window well and remove visible debris. For those with a shop vac or industrial-powered vacuum, vacuuming the well will get the smaller items for a deeper clean. As a final step, spray weed killer.
Deep clean your deck or patio: We want you to enjoy your outdoor living space for seasons to come. Giving your deck or patio and a good scrub down once a year helps prolong its life span. Use an approved cleaner that removes bacteria and mold and wait until the weather is warm and dry.
Clear dead plants and weeds from landscaping: Early spring is the time to take action against weeds with some pro-active weeding. Damp soil makes it much easier to pull young weed seedlings and keep them from spreading. Also, if you left your perennials standing from fall, and you start to see new growth at the base of the plants, it's safe to begin removing winter mulch and pruning them down to ground level.
Check and clean out gutters: It's best to clean gutters anytime you see significant dirt or debris build-up. This can be as simple as using gloves, a hose and a ladder, but depending on the layout of your home, it could become quite an intensive project. For your safety, make sure you're properly using a ladder or look into hiring a professional.
Pest control: Warm weather means that bugs and other pests come out of hibernation. Check the exterior of your home for any ripped screens, replace weather-stripping and repair loose mortar around the foundation and windows. Hiring a pest service to spray the exterior is recommended.
Replace batteries in your smoke detector: Fire safety experts recommend you replace your smoke alarm batteries two times a year. You can mark the date inside the alarm to keep track of the changes. It is also recommended that you buy new smoke alarms every ten years.
Replace your HVAC filter: Replace your HVAC filter whenever it gets too dirty, but a good rule of thumb is to replace it twice a year - once before summer and once before winter.
Wipe down your ceiling fans: They've been collecting dust for the better half of a year, so wipe down the fan blades with a damp rag. Set the rotation so they are blowing air straight down into the room, displacing the hot air away from you. (The fan will rotate counter-clockwise.)
Deep clean your carpets: You should try to do this at least once a year to protect your carpets and limit allergens. Our flooring experts recommend a hot water extraction method or steam cleaning. Visit Northcraft's website for more information.
Summer
Fall
Exterior door threshold adjustment: Look under the door and see if you can see daylight or if a business card will slip easily under the door. All exterior doors have a weather strip at the bottom and an adjustable weather strip along the threshold. Each adjustable weather strip will have 4 (give or take a few) screws that can be raised and lowered to create a proper seal. If you see light under the door simply turn the screws in that location to adjust.
Wind up the hoses and put them away: Remember to always remove the garden hose from the hose bib (exterior faucet) prior to freezing temperatures.
Humidistat settings and open the damper: It’s best to make sure the humidistat (mostly found on the furnace) is set to AUTO and the humidity setting is within the range of 25%-35%. Also check to make sure the damper is in the open position. The damper control is found on the front of the system and is labeled (if it's pointing left or right the damper is open, up or down, then it's closed.)