The fall home maintenance checklist

Fall maintenance has a deadline, and the deadline is weather. Everything on this list is easier, cheaper, and safer to do while it is still fifty degrees and dry outside. Do it in October and it is a pleasant Saturday. Do it in January and it is an emergency with a service call attached.

Here is the whole list, in the order that actually matters. If you only have one weekend, the first section is the one that pays for itself.

Start outside

Water is the thing that wrecks houses, and fall is when water gets a new set of opportunities. Everything outdoors comes first because a freeze turns a small water problem into a burst pipe or a cracked foundation.

Clean the gutters and check the downspouts

Clogged gutters send water down the side of your house and into the soil against your foundation. Clear them after most of the leaves have dropped, then run a hose through to confirm water exits the downspout and lands at least four feet from the house.

Drain and shut off outdoor faucets

Disconnect every hose. A connected hose traps water in the spigot, and that water expands when it freezes, which splits the pipe behind your wall. You will not find out until spring, when you turn the tap and water appears in the basement instead.

A hose left connected through one freeze is the most expensive five seconds of not-doing in home maintenance.

Walk the roofline

You do not need to climb up. Stand back with binoculars or your phone camera and look for lifted shingles, exposed nail heads, and anything growing where nothing should grow. Note what you see, and if something looks wrong, call before the first storm rather than after.

Then the systems

Your furnace is about to work harder than it has in six months. This is the moment to find out whether it is ready, while a technician can still get to you within a week.

Service the furnace and replace the filter

An annual service is the single highest-value maintenance appointment in your year: it catches the failures that turn into no-heat calls, and it keeps your warranty valid. Change the filter at the same time, and note the size somewhere you will find it again.

Reverse your ceiling fans

Clockwise in winter, at low speed. It pushes the warm air that collects at your ceiling back down along the walls. It costs nothing and you will feel it within a day.

The twenty-minute jobs

• Test every smoke and carbon monoxide detector, and replace the batteries
• Seal drafts around doors and windows with weatherstripping
• Flush the water heater and check the pressure relief valve
• Clean the dryer vent duct, not only the lint screen

What can wait until spring

Not everything is urgent, and treating it as though it is guarantees you will do none of it. Deck staining, driveway sealing, and most exterior painting want warm dry weather. Put them down for April and stop carrying them around in your head.

That is the real trick with home maintenance. The work is rarely hard. Remembering it at the right moment is the hard part, and that is the part a plan solves.