How do I get my house ready for fall? Home maintenance experts provide their advice for the upcoming winter months.
The best maintenance advice for when the temperatures start to fall has been provided by experts to help you get your house ready for fall.
It is crucial to get our house ready for the upcoming colder season as we move out of the warmer summer months. Prepare your home for fall by carrying out some necessary maintenance while we get ready by bringing out our long-stored sweaters.
Even though it would be nice to leave fall home preparation to the best fall wreath ideas and fall decor ideas, more crucial tasks like gutter cleaning, winter insulation preparation, and cleaning neglected areas of your home should also be attended to before the temperatures start to drop.
Here, a variety of professionals have shared their best advice for getting your house ready for fall so that you may start decorating for the season and enter the Christmas season with confidence.
How Can I Get My House Ready for Fall?
It’s crucial to get your house ready for the changing seasons as the days grow shorter and the nights grow darker. Your home will be better prepared for the abrupt weather changes, such as heavy rain, frosts, and potentially strong winds, by finishing major home maintenance projects in the small window between the end of summer and the start of fall.
It is more than worth your time to spend in early maintenance and preparation so that your property can look its best the following summer. Early maintenance and preparation have been shown to prevent significant damages and save you money in the long run.
1. After the heat of the summer, repair your lawn.
After the summer heat and days spent in the sunshine, the fall is the ideal time to repair your grass..
Most Experts believe that over the summer, soils have become very hard, dry, and compacted, preventing moisture from penetrating and slowing recovery. “An aeration treatment is the most effective way to treat this,” The use of hollow tine aeration or spiking are two excellent solutions to these problems. These will both aid in the penetration of water, nutrients, and air to the grassroots, resulting in a lush, green lawn in the fall.
The best time to overseed your lawn for a lush, green lawn the following season is in the fall. David continues, “It also fills in bare spots and hardens the lawn by increasing shade, drought tolerance, and disease resistance.”
2. Plant New Bulbs For The Upcoming Spring
The best time to plant several bulbs in preparation for the upcoming spring and summer is in the fall. The colder temperatures help many plants and flowers germinate more quickly, such as when planting tulips.
You can get your house and yard ready for stunning blossoms in the summer by learning what to plant in September and what to grow in October.
3. Improve Your Home Security For Darker Days
The fall months often see an increase in break-ins as the nights get darker. Because of this, it is important to protect your home and consider upgrading your home security with some of the best home security systems.
According to Kevin Spencer, Yale’s head of product management, “the garden should be the first line of defense for your home.” “Burglars use the cover of darkness and overgrown trees and shrubs to move around a garden undetected, so it’s worth making sure the exterior of your property is up to scratch to beat the burglars this autumn,” the FBI says. First, inspect your fence panels and board up any holes and replace any loose slats. Verify the security of gates once more, and for peace of mind, choose premium weatherproof padlocks like the Yale Maximum Security Weatherproof Padlock.
“Once you’ve upgraded your door cylinder, it’s crucial to consider additional front door security measures as well.” The front of your house should always be well-lit, so security lighting is a wise investment. A front door security camera or smart doorbell, in addition to illumination, is an efficient way to make sure you can monitor the front of your home from anywhere with a smartphone.
When you’ve finished safeguarding your home’s outside, you should also think about securing it from the inside. As fall approaches, it’s important to remember to always keep windows closed and secured after getting used to keeping them open during the summer. This is because robbers will use open windows to get into your home quickly. According to a survey by Yale, 25% of burglaries result in windows being broken, while another 21% include windows being left open. As a result, it’s critical to keep your window locks secure at all times.
4. Prepare and Clean Up Decking Areas
When you plan ahead, maintaining your deck ideas is simple. Nathan Gamba, director at Protea Gardens, recommends, “Start to get on top of sweeping fallen leaves, especially on the decking as they can stain and discolor it.” However, he advises leaving them in flower beds since they protect insects and keep plant roots warm when the weather grows kinder.
While knowing when to prepare your deck for fall is equally important, learning how to paint and stain a deck are useful home maintenance skills in the fall. According to Matthew Brown of Sadolin & Sandtex Technical, “it is very important to take into account weather conditions when decorating, not only while doing the job but also during drying/curing times.” ‘For instance, during the early fall, the mornings may be rainy and the evenings may experience sharp temperature decreases, which will increase humidity levels and, at best, prolong drying periods but, at worst, risk trapping moisture in the coating film.
It takes a lot of drying time to keep decking in good condition for the winter, so it’s crucial to pay attention to the weather before, during, and after application. Water-based decking stain treatments will typically take four to six hours to completely dry after application. Within the first hour of application, if rain falls on the water-based stain and creates puddles, the substance will wash off. Prior to and following the application of the product, always consider the weather.
Sadolin Wet Wood Decking Stain is intended to be applied over wet decking and is available on Amazon. Apply the paint while the wood is still wet after cleaning and cleaning the decking surface. The solution works incredibly well and eliminates the requirement for lengthy pre-application and post-application drying times.
As with your backyard deck, you might want to think about front porch cleaning advice and get your porch ready for fall.
5. Clean Out Gutters
Gutters are easy to overlook, but before the fall rains arrive, it’s crucial to make sure they are not obstructed or clogged. Depending on where you live, gutters may remove tens of thousands of gallons of water each year from your roof; should they clog, you could sustain interior and external water damage.
Cleaning the gutters is a reasonably simple operation as long as you have the right tools and, more importantly, you can stay safe, according to Jack Knight, category manager at Drainage Superstore. Wait for a dry day because it will not only make the area safer but also make it simpler to collect debris that isn’t wet.
“Find a strong ladder to help you safely access the gutters, and put on safety gloves.” By placing some tarps on the ground beneath the ladders to make it easier to gather waste, you can keep everything organized. If it is not possible, attach a bucket to the top of the latter and fill it with debris; just make sure to empty it frequently.
You can proceed to the downpipes after the roofline guttering is clean. To remove any debris that has become lodged in the pipe, use a wire, stick, or even a hose after loosening the downpipe clamps and brackets with a screwdriver. Reconnect the pipes once it’s safe to do so.
Make careful to clear and clean gutters and drainpipes as the leaves start to fall so that water can flow easily to exterior drains.