Spring Home Maintenance Checklist
Regular home maintenance enhances property value, prevents damage, and improves efficiency, but knowing what tasks to perform and when can be challenging. Our spring maintenance checklist simplifies this by outlining essential yard work and exterior upkeep for the coming months.
Follow our 12 tips to keep your home safe, clean, and dry.
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Spring Home Maintenance Checklist
Spring is a crucial time for home maintenance, which involves inspecting your property for winter damage and preparing for the rainy season ahead. Follow our 12 steps below to ensure your property remains in optimal repair.
1. Inspect Your Property for Winter Damage
Begin outdoor maintenance by inspecting your property for winter damage. Visually check for water leaks and inspect the roof for loose shingles. Examine the chimney for cracked bricks and leaning, and check the foundation, sidewalks, and driveway for cracks and unevenness.
Promptly identifying issues helps avoid future problems and costly repairs. For example, addressing a failing roof can prevent rainwater damage in the attic.
2. Assess the Foundation for Cracks and Bulges
Your foundation is the most essential part of your home. Even though it’s out of sight, it shouldn’t be out of mind. Inspect your home’s perimeter and foundation each spring for cracks, uneven surfaces, or bulging walls. These conditions may indicate damage caused by frost heave, where freezing soil expands and exerts pressure upwards on the foundation. If you notice the signs of foundation damage, schedule a free inspection with your local Groundworks foundation repair experts.
3. Tidy Up Yard Debris
Outdoor spring cleaning is an opportunity to tidy up your yard. Rake fallen leaves, trim dead foliage, collect fallen branches, and remove landscaping debris. For decorative grasses, cut back the dead leaves in early spring to provide room for new growth.
4. Prune Trees and Shrubs
Spring is the best time for pruning many trees and shrubs. A healthy trim ensures manageable-sized plants, improves flowering or fruiting, and prevents plants from damaging your home. Keep branches away from the house to avoid attracting pests, enhance airflow, and prevent mildew on your home’s siding.
Avoid pruning spring-flowering plants too early. Lilacs or forsythias bloom in spring, and you’ll get the best display if you prune after they flower.
5. Clean Gutters and Downspouts
Well-functioning gutters and downspouts are essential for keeping water away from your home’s foundation. Clean gutters at least twice yearly, with extensive cleanup in the spring.
Clean out any winter debris before spring rainstorms to help prevent basement flooding when gutters overflow. Some homeowners may also want to consider installing gutter guards to reduce gutter maintenance and improve the effectiveness of their drainage system.
6. Check Outdoor Plumbing and Pipes
Perform a visual inspection of your home’s outdoor plumbing and mechanical systems. Check outdoor faucets for cracks or ice damage. Inspect the pipes connecting your home to an outside heat pump, compressor, AC unit, or generator for signs of corrosion, leaks, or damage.
7. Flush Outdoor Drainage Systems
Drainage systems protect your home from floods, so rainy springtime is the best time to ensure they function properly. After cleaning gutter debris, inspect storm drains for blockages and use a pressure washer to remove grime from hard-to-reach places.
8. Reseed Bare Spots in the Lawn
Reseed bare spots in the lawn to achieve a lush, green lawn by summer. Doing this gives new growth ample time to flourish before the harsh summer heat. Choose the correct grass seed variety for your region and follow lawn care instructions for optimal results.
9. Inspect for Pests
Closely inspect your home’s perimeter for pest infestations. Burrowing pests can disrupt the soil beside the house and gain access indoors via the foundation sill at the base of your siding. Promptly address these issues and look carefully for evidence of termites, which can cause extensive home damage.
Additionally, inspect the roofline for wasp nests and potential entry points for pests such as bats, birds, and squirrels.
10. Improve Foundation Perimeter Landscaping
The landscaping near your home’s foundation can enhance its long-term stability or cause problems like rot, water damage, and pest infestations.
Begin by clearing debris around the foundation, including basement window wells. Inspect the grading around your home to ensure water flows away from the foundation. Avoid placing soil and mulch directly against the foundation, which can hold moisture and attract termites.
If you think your home may have a problem, contact a foundation repair expert. You may need to repair the grading, install a drainage system, or add a gravel perimeter around the house.
11. Power Wash Siding and Decks
Pressure washing is an effective way to clean exterior surfaces, like siding and decks, but it’s crucial to follow product recommendations. For example, pine decks require a very low-pressure setting (around 500 psi) to avoid damaging the soft wood. Always follow the product manual for the specific material you’re cleaning, including what pressure setting and cleaning solution to use.
12. Plan Ahead for Summer Projects
Are there any big yard maintenance projects you want to tackle this year? Spring is an excellent time to plan goals such as updating drainage, installing walkways, creating garden beds, or painting.
While home renovations surged recently, spending this year dropped due to rising interest rates and a decrease in home sales. In the past, many homeowners focused on kitchen and bathroom upgrades. This year, the trend is to focus on projects that enhance ROI, like painting, installing tiles, refinishing hardwood floors, and upgrading landscaping. Investing in home repairs with long-term value, like installing a sump pump and other waterproofing methods, proactively protects your home from flooding and enhances property value.
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Contact Groundworks for Expert Home Maintenance Solutions
Groundworks provides home repairs that protect your home and secure your investment. Our proprietary solutions and extensive knowledge make us the area’s leading foundation repair and waterproofing expert. Schedule a free inspection to learn more about our customized repair solutions.
FAQs
It’s a good idea to get a foundation inspection every couple of years, especially if you notice damage. If you work with Groundworks to repair your foundation, you can take advantage of annual service and maintenance programs that include evaluations of your home and any repair solutions installed.
Every home has unique needs when it comes to drainage. Solutions could involve anything from replacing drainage matting to a new sump pump to outtake extensions. The solutions you use for fixing poor drainage will rely on a variety of elements, including but not limited to repairing what you already have and replacing it with new options.
- Repairing Existing Systems
Ideally, you want to be able to repair your existing systems – this is not only cost-effective but far more convenient. This is typically less invasive, less expensive, and more effective. However, you have to catch the problems early to be able to do this, which means you need to regularly think about your foundation drainage.
As such, a robust inspection and maintenance schedule should be at the top of your to-do list. This will prevent avoidable breakdowns and damage while ensuring that warning signs of foundation damage are brought to your attention quickly. This will let you act before issues have a chance to snowball.
- Replacing Your Current Systems
In some situations, you might have no choice but to replace the systems you have. This is most common if you haven’t had an inspection in a long time and conditions around your foundation have seriously deteriorated. After an inspection, Groundworks experts will be able to give you a clear-cut answer on the way forward.
If you do want or need to replace any (or all) of your current systems, it pays to make sure that you are choosing energy-efficient appliances and durable products that are compatible with each other. This will ensure that you get the best possible result from your new basement waterproofing system. If you get the right system for your home, you will feel the benefits immediately.
Not all foundation problems are an immediate concern. Usually, they don’t pose an immediate risk, but they can become problematic over time. As foundation issues worsen, the associated risks increase. If you’ve been dealing with foundation problems for a while, your home might be unsafe. Contact a professional for expert advice.
