Helpful Hints: All Seasons

Household tips will make your home a more comfortable and safer place to live. Monthly additions to this section include tips for removing stubborn stains, ways you can protect your home from indoor and outdoor hazards, techniques that will help you organize your home, and how to clean and care for household pets. For the chores too big for you to handle, please call us.

Monthly Hints:  °  All Seasons
2010:  °  January  °  February  °  March  ° April  °  May  °  June  °  July
2009:  °  September  °  October  °  November  °  December

Each season and every occasion brings a series of maintenance items for you to consider to keep your home in prime condition and to please your family and guests. Following is a list of the most important projects to consider, along with a list of those that we can schedule for you if you wish.

Seasonal Home Maintenance List

  • Check your house exterior for general condition; be sure that plants are not rubbing against the house . . . and do watch for pesky ivy. Beautiful though it is, ivy is strong enough to crawl under wood siding, and even through mortar around bricks! Spring is most important, but we recommend staying on plants year-round.
  • Check your air conditioner and heater vents to free them of dust. Inspect and replace filters as necessary.
  • Test your fire and smoke alarms. Batteries generally need replacing during the year.

Spring:

  • Touch up paint or refresh caulking as needed after winter rains.
  • Check your foundation to ensure that water has not infiltrated your siding or basement.
  • Inspect your window insulation.
  • Call us to clean exterior of your upper-story windows (Spring and Fall is recommended)
  • We can also check your gutters and check downspouts in Spring and Fall. This is extremely important. Clogged downspouts cause no end of problems.
  • Inspect roof for warping, aging, cracking and plant growth.

Summer:

  • Check all interior and exterior plumbing areas for dampness. Dampness cannot be ignored; along with the damage it can cause, it brings unwanted bugs.
  • Repair caulking around kitchen and bathroom tiles, counters and sinks. Be sure no moisture is seeping in . . . that causes long-term damage that is expensive to repair.
  • Inspect roof for warping, aging, cracking and plant growth.

Fall:

  • Best to start preparing for winter now. Somehow rainfall creeps up on us.
  • You will want to review Spring especially as many of those items should be inspected/repaired twice a year.
  • Check weather stripping around all doors and windows and ensure that there is a strip along your garage door so that water cannot seep in underneath.
  • Trim back any trees or shrubs and be especially sure that tree limbs are away from your roof and trimmed back so that they cannot fall on anything.
  • Shelter any plants that will not do well outside in winter, particularly if you are in an area with frost, which much of Marin has. Either move them into a greenhouse or into the house.

Winter:

  • Get ready for the holidays and for cozy evenings at home with family and friends.
  • Give a final inspection to paint, both interior and exterior. Make doubly sure there are no leaking areas.
  • Wax and buff wood floors so they have extra protection against wet feet and dripping umbrellas.
  • Test for carbon monoxide as windows will be closed and you want your family safe.