Know About Your Home’s Year-Round Maintenance Needs

There are a lot of perks to being a homeowner. It’s also a lot of responsibility and work. As any long-time homeowner will tell you, owning a home is a year-round job, and there’s always more work around the corner. However, all the time and effort you put into upkeep is worth it: not only can preventive maintenance help prevent expensive and stressful problems down the road, but it can also help your home retain its value in the coming years and decades. In this article, we’ll outline some of the most important seasonal maintenance tasks you should tackle this year.

Home Maintenance

Schedule spring and fall HVAC tune-ups

Your air conditioner is vital to your summer comfort. Your heat pump or furnace is critical to your winter comfort. Maintaining both in the spring and fall needs to be a priority for your home. Not only does a professional tune-up help your HVAC systems avoid in-season breakdowns, but they can also help them operate more efficiently, lowering your cooling and heating costs and your utility bills. In fact, preventative HVAC maintenance is critical for any homeowner who wants to extend the lifespan of their systems for years to come.

For your home’s heating and air conditioning tune-up service, you’ll want to call a local HVAC professional in the months prior to using the system for the first time that season. For example, in the fall, have a Buffalo HVAC company out to inspect and tune up your furnace in the early days of fall before the nights get colder and you need your furnace. This ensures that your systems are operating at their best and most efficient throughout the entirety of winter.

Air Conditioning

Get your home ready for winter

In many parts of the country, winters are tough on a home. Snow, ice, and below-freezing temperatures can all impact your roof, yard, and more. It’s important to dedicate some time in the fall to preparing for winter conditions. You should clean out your gutters and downspouts in the fall to make sure that water—primarily from snowmelt—can quickly and cleanly get off of the roof. Any water buildup on a roof is going to lead to problems later down the road. If your home has a chimney and fireplace, have it professionally cleaned to ensure that your chimney is safe to use throughout the winter. Finally, you’ll want to cover your air conditioner and any outdoor equipment, and get that snowblower ready.

Between the hustle and bustle of the holidays and the colder temperatures outside, you may not want to handle too many home projects in the winter. However, you should be clearing off icicles and looking for ice dams in your gutter that might cause moisture buildup on the roof. Also, well in advance of any blizzards or large storms, make sure your home has adequate supplies. If you have a backup generator, there’s no time like the present to make sure it’s ready for when you need it.

As the weather warms up, start your spring cleaning

Most homeowners make spring the busiest season for home maintenance, and that’s for good reason: most of us are anxious to get back outdoors into warming weather and start the upkeep of our homes. As the snow melts away, be sure to inspect your roof for any issues: if you were vigilant about keeping the gutters clear, you shouldn’t have any issues with snowmelt. As previously mentioned, you’ll want to book an AC tune-up in the late spring to make sure your cooling system is ready for warmer weather. Spring is also a great time to open up the windows and start caring for your yard, garden beds, and deck again. Don’t forget to spend some weekends on the porch, enjoying the nice weather. You’ve earned it!

For a season-by-season view of what you need to do to maintain your home, take a look at this infographic from Reimer Home Services in Buffalo, New York. It contains a breakdown of everything you need to do for home upkeep in the spring, summer, fall, and winter.