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Autumn Maintenance Punch List – Homeowners

With autumn rapidly approaching it would be a good time to check you home to make it ready for the coming winter. The most important factor to remember is, water does the most damage to any house. Autumn Maintenance Punch List – Homeowners

Walk around your home and look for any place where water is able to seep into your home. If you find any places for water to seep in note it as we will deal with it later. Keep a list of spot on a diagram of your home you have put on a piece of paper.

Don’t make it difficult, as this is a tool to help you remember. Scale is not important. Doors and windows locations are though. Making a simple square or rectangle with perpendicular line where the doors and windows placement is fine.

If you know, or think you may know, about a roof leak, call a roofer for an inspection is worth the $100 or so they may charge. Some roofer will inspect your roof for free or rebate the inspection costs if they make the repairs or replacement to your roof.

Here are the Autumn Punch List Items:

• Window and Doors caulking and seal:Check all four side of windows and doors to see

  

  if there is sign of a possible opening that might allow water to intrude. Make sure the windows are not cracked too as this would allow for cold to enter and possible danger of cutting someone if it should break.

• Check All Surfaces That Are Painted: Check the wall surfaces for peeling and cracking of the paint. Those places you find peeling and/or cracking you can scrape and lightly sand the surface and use paint from the last paint job you stored in the garage. If you can’t find any paint take a small chip of your current paint color to a paint store and they will make you an amount you will need for your touch up.
• Deck and Patio: Check thoroughly wooden deck and patio. Remove any debris or weeds that may have built up over the summer. Replace any rotten board, sanded, stained and painted as needed. If you have brick or stone removal of heaving sections would be a good suggestion. Once again remove any weeds that my have taken up residence.
• Driveways and Walkways: If you have asphalt on your driveway, you probably already know, they need sealing every other year. Fill any potholes or dips with asphalt patching materials. If you have concrete then there are some great epoxy patching materials out there, which will solve your problem.
• Yard Clean Up and Landscaping: This is time to put your summer garden to bed. Pull out dead plants and compost them. Pull weeds and throw them in a recycle bin or garbage can. Do not put in your compost. If you do you will have lots of weeds to pull in your garden next year. Any fruit on the ground pick it up and compost. Provided it is not diseased. If it has disease get it off your property.
• If you prefer not to use your time to do yard clean up and trim your landscaping back then your gardener my offer a “fall clean up” package, which will save you some time. If you don’t have a gardener look in the throw away papers under gardeners and call one that offers such a service.

This list may seem long and impossible to do, but you can do it in one day or stretch it out over several weekends. The important thing is to keep the water out and make your gardening experience next spring enjoyable.

I hope this Autumn Maintenance Punch List – Homeowners has been helpful to you and you home.

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