By Mark Soto for HomeServe USA
As a homeowner, regular house maintenance is a year-round obligation, especially with spring — the time to reawaken after winter and prepare for summer — just around the corner. As you work through your seasonal spring home maintenance checklist, take care to avoid common mistakes that spring tends to make this time of year.
From cleaning your gutters to inspecting essential home systems — like HVAC and plumbing — staying one step ahead of potential missteps and essential tasks can help your household run smoothly as the weather warms. Homeserve USA Eight of the most common spring maintenance mistakes homeowners often make are:
1. Ignoring your gutters
If you really care about your maintenance obligations, you need to put your mind in the gutter. Homeowners should clean their gutters at least twice a year, once in the spring and once in the fall. As your roof’s primary drainage system, gutters must be clear of obstructions such as leaves, twigs, dirt, and critter corpses to prevent rainwater from overflowing onto your roof and the sides of your home, causing shingles, siding, and foundation damage.
Combine winter’s neglected debris with spring rainstorms and you have a recipe for roof damage. Grab a ladder, a bucket, and a pair of work gloves, and remove the debris from the gutter by hand, or if you’re physically unable, unwilling, or too worn out, call a roofer to handle it.
2. Not inspecting a roof
Spring roof maintenance doesn’t stop at the gutters. A harsh winter can cause problems with your shingles, and a roof inspection can help you identify and fix those problems before they get worse. To avoid a leaky roof during that proverbial April shower, climb a ladder and do at least a cursory inspection of your roof, checking for warped, broken, missing or otherwise compromised shingles, as well as downed branches or other debris and the usual.
Again, if this isn’t something you’re willing or able to do yourself, a professional can perform an inspection to ensure a smooth ride through the roof spring and fix or replace broken shingles, cracked flashing, and other issues.
3. Forget about foundation cracks
Winter weather can damage more than just your roof; What lies beneath your feet is also weak. As concrete expands and contracts during extreme temperature changes, cracks can develop in your foundation — and spring is not the time to ignore them. These cracks can get worse as the snow melts and the soil absorbs excess moisture, which causes soil erosion and more cracks, ultimately compromising the integrity of your home’s foundation.
If you live in an area prone to heavy spring rains, foundation problems can lead to flooding of other problems. Hire a foundation repair contractor to inspect your home’s foundation as well as discover cracks and any other problems they may have.
4. Activation of allergens
They say the aforementioned April showers bring May flowers, and as those flowers bloom, they can release pollen that aggravates allergies, causing sneezing, itchy eyes and other discomforts. Prepare your home by replacing your HVAC filter. If filters are clogged, they’ll have a harder time removing allergens from the air, making your system work harder, hampering efficiency and resulting in higher energy bills.
Your furnace, air handler and return filters should be replaced at least every three months, so chances are if you change them for the winter, you’ll be due again come spring. For severe allergies, you may want to invest in an air purifier and even a HEPA-filtered vacuum, as allergens often reside in your carpets or on your furniture surfaces.
5. Spotting HVAC tune-ups
After a brutal winter or in anticipation of a hot summer, a spring HVAC tune-up is worth every penny for peace of mind. While switching out the air filter every few months is minimal maintenance, it’s not enough.
A professional tune-up by a licensed HVAC contractor typically includes cleaning the evaporator and condenser coils, cleaning condensate drain lines, refilling refrigerant, checking for leaks, calibrating thermostats, and inspecting electrical components. This ensures that your HVAC system works when you need it most and that any minor problems are diagnosed before they become major problems.
6. Skipping spring cleaning
In addition to the practical benefits of clearing clutter, spring cleaning is A boon for your health. If you use the fireplace frequently during the winter, clean around it and consider hiring a professional chimney sweep to take a deep dive. In your kitchen, thoroughly clean the appliances you use the most, such as the oven, stovetop, refrigerator, microwave, and coffee maker, and wipe down common surfaces to remove accumulated dust and debris. In the bathroom, deep cleaning should focus on removing stubborn soap scum from sinks, showers, and bathtubs, as well as cleaning and resealing your tile grout.
Homeowners may be tempted to skip a major comprehensive cleaning effort, but even if it doesn’t threaten to break down a major system like plumbing, HVAC, or electrical, it’s just as important. Deep cleaning your whole house can help with everything from better air quality to improved energy efficiency and lower utility costs.
7. Pass the plumbing inspection
Freezing temperatures during the winter months can damage your pipes and make them susceptible to leaks. Inspecting your pipes for small leaks and fixing them in time can prevent bigger, wetter problems down the line — like a burst pipe and resulting flooding. Also, check your lawn for puddles or saturated spots when it’s not raining, as these could be indicators of a broken groundwater line or sewer line.
Because home lawn and landscape needs, swimming pools, and other warm-weather demands typically use more water in the summer, catching problems early prevents you from wasting water and money.
8. Let the landscaping be lazy
Once the snow melts in your yard, it exposes months of seasonal neglect during the winter months. It’s time to prepare the yard to remove leaves, dead plants, damaged grass and other debris. Inspect your lawn and determine which patches could use overseeding and add new mulch to the landscaping to set the stage for spring growth.
It’s also a good time to inspect your hardscape — checking patios, sidewalks, driveways and other paved paths for cracks and weed encroachment. Like your home’s foundation, your hardscape can be compromised when snow melts and moisture seeps into the surrounding soil. Ignoring landscaping and hardscaping around the house can cost you in the long run, with more costly problems and aesthetic impacts.
This is the story is produced by Homeserve USA and review and distribution Stacker.
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Previously published at hub.stackernewswire
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