You’ve done it! You (and your home) have made it through the long and daunting winter season, and you’re ready to begin preparing for the warmer spring and summer months. The fall and spring are prime times to get out your pen and paper and create a To-Do List, and we’re here to help with some things that should be done every spring, around your home.
House Maintenance
Air Conditioner Maintenance:
You’ll want to clean off the condenser coils, replace the filters, and start it up to ensure that it’s working properly. Nothing is worse than finding out the hard way when you need it the most.
Test out sprinklers:
Once the ground isn’t threatening to freeze any more, start up your irrigation system. Make sure that all the valves are closed and fill the system with water and turn each sprinkler zone on, one at a time. Leave each zone on for approximately 10-15 minutes and walk around and make sure you do not find any water pooled in locations where it shouldn’t be, which would indicate a leak.
Fertilize lawn:
Now is a good time to fertilize the lawn because, if done early enough, you can use fertilizer with built in weed preventer, which may save you some back-breaking labor down the road. It will help prevent weeds from growing, and assist in new grass growth that will eventually crowd out the weeds. It will also make the grass appear greener, quicker, and can help the lawn be more water efficient.
Start up lawn equipment:
Get your lawn mower out, and check the blade. Sharpen or replace it if necessary. Don’t forget to re-connect the mower spark plug, and flip the fuel cut-off switch that you enabled when you winterized it. Put gas in the tank, and start it up, and make sure it starts and that there is no gas sludge left over in the tank from last fall.
Prep garden:
Till the dirt in your garden, pull the weeds, and add any soil amendments that you may need such as compost, or peat moss.If you are looking to have a manicured flower area, make sure to lay down landscape fabric. Home improvement stores offer good sale prices on mulch during the early springtime as well.
Take care of weeds:
Pull any early signs of weeds, or use a natural preventative such as cornstarch if you have a larger surface area. Mixing boiling water and vinegar and spraying them on weeds is also an effective method of killing any pesky ones that may have already sprouted.
Clean your gutters:
With spring comes an abundance of rain, so make sure that your gutters can handle the water and aren’t clogged. When your gutters are full, the water doesn’t drain from the roof properly and, instead, runs down the side of your home causing detrimental damage to your home’s foundation.
Prune trees and plants:
Trees will often have shoots that appear at the base of the trunk of the tree. These need to be cut early in the season as soon as they appear, as trimming these shoots forces the tree to focus on growing upwards, rather than outwards. If you have a fruit tree, this is very important to yielding a good fruit crop as well. Shrubs and ground cover should be trimmed back as well, so it remains manageable and you won’t be faced with massive overgrowth later in the season.
Close Your Fireplace and/or turn off the gas:
Fairly self explainable, however, if your fireplace has the ability to close, do so. It will help with energy by not allowing any air to escape. If you have a gas fireplace, disconnect or turn off the gas line since you won’t be needing it for a while.
Take off window weather-proofing and check screen connections:
If you followed our Fall Maintenance Guide and applied an insulation kit, now is the time to remove them and clean the windows well. While you’re there, make sure that the screen is snapped tightly into place and doesn’t have any holes that would require maintenance. Damaged screening can allow bugs and other pests to enter your home.
With this easy to follow checklist, you can quickly and easily prepare your home for the upcoming warmer months. The flowers are appearing, and winter is finally over! You made it through another long winter; congratulations!
Make sure you check out this post on 20 Items Every Homeowner Should Have.
Photo Credits: 1,2,4: The Art of Making a Baby | 3,6: The Memoirs of Megan | 5: The Quinntessential Mommy
Great tips Megan- could easily apply here in the UK although we don’t exactly have the best of summers! You mention closing heating and the fireplace however what we often suggest is to actually turn it on once a month just for around five mins- keeps it active, ensures dust doesn’t build up and determines that when the winter does come back around your heating doesn’t fail on you. Not sure if this would be done over in the US though? – Caroline