DIY Fall Homeowner Checklist: 10 Things You Need to Be Doing Now!

1.) Change Your HVAC Filters

If I sound like a broken record about this it’s because it’s one of the simplest and beneficial things you can do for your heating & air conditioning system. So many potentially problematic issues can be avoiding if you just change your filters out regularly. (Every 3 months if you can) For more info on the benefits of changing your filters regularly, check out this previous article I wrote.

2.) Flush Your Hot Water Tank

I’m always surprised by how many homeowners I talk to that have never drained and flushed their hot water tank. Understandable I suppose, it’s not something you learn about in school. Flushing your water tank is really simple and it helps prolong the life of the tank. Over time, lime, calcium, and other minerals in your water can create deposits in the tank. (Especially if you have hard water) Periodically draining your water tank doesn’t allow those sediments to build up and cause problems with the heating elements that can shorten the life of the tank. The middle of the winter is the worst time to not have hot water in your home!

While you’re at it, it’s not a bad idea to turn the water temperature down on your tank a few degrees. Warm water in the winter months feels warmer as the air is cooler. Save yourself some energy costs by decreasing the temperature a little bit. You won’t notice and it’ll help your wallet.

3.) Clean Your Gutters

This is a big one! Cleaning gutters makes sure that your gutters are working properly and can drain the water away from your house as snow, rain, and ice freeze and thaw. If you don’t have clean gutters, water can turn to ice and build up in the gutters which can build into ice dams that can get under your roof and cause major water damage inside. Not only that but gutters that are frozen solid can get really heavy and separate from the house which can fall and cause major problems. A quick cleaning can save you a lot of potential headache.

4.) Seal Drafts

A drafty house in the winter is no fun. Finding leaky areas now and sealing them up not only keeps your house more comfortable in the winter months, but can also save you big money on your energy bill. Common culprits of drafts in your home are around electrical outlets, worn out weather stripping on doors, and older single pane windows. For more tips on how to seal up drafts, areas to target, and ways to save on energy costs this winter check out this article.

5.) Winterize Your Pipes

If you’re in an area that freezes, it’s time to winterize your pipes. Any outdoor plumbing like sprinkler systems need to be drained of any water that could potentially freeze and cause a rupture. Any hose bibs or piping that sticks up from the ground should be wrapped with insulating pipe tape or insulating foam and UV Proof tape.

Inside the house it’s also not a bad idea to wrap any water lines or piping that runs through the foundation, sills, or is in close proximity to exterior walls. If you commonly battle freezing pipes in the winter you’re likely familiar with trouble spots. Wrapping pipes helps insulate to prevent freezing.

Ruptured pipes can cause big problems both inside and out. Do yourself a favor and spend a few minutes now and potentially save yourself a huge headache.

If you want to save yourself a hassle of draining exterior hose bibs down the line, consider updating to a House Hydrant from Aquor Water Systems. 

6.) Clean & Fertilize Your Lawn

Homeowners commonly overlook their lawn when preparing their homes for winter, but a simple winterizing fertilizer can help your lawn rebound quickly come the spring. Do your best to rake any leaves and debris around the lawn and apply a winterizing fertilizer all around the lawn. There are a ton of great products out there, but a slow release, nitrogen rich fertilizer will continue to feed your lawn all winter long. Make sure your lawn and home are prepped for winter and ready for spring.

7.) Fix Chips and Cracks in Concrete

If you have a crack in your driveway, sidewalk, foundation, or walkway going into the winter months you can bet that it’ll be worse come the spring! Frost heave is a nightmare for concrete cracks. Water penetrates the crack, freezes and expands, and then lifts and separates the crack even more. If there’s a spot where this can happen around your home it 100% will happen. You’ll be left with a bigger mess to deal with in the spring. Look around your home and make the small fix now before it turns into a bigger fix later.

8.) Tune up Your Small Engines

Now is the time to do all the small engine repairs and maintenance on your snowblower, lawnmower, and make sure your snow shovels are in good shape. Doing basic maintenance on your small engine items like oil & filter changes, carburetor cleaning, and air filter changes can make sure those machines are ready to go when you need them. Tuning up your snowblower may seem an obvious one but doing end of season maintenance on your lawnmower also makes sure it’s good to be stored for the winter and will be ready to go when the spring rolls around.

9.) Have Your Chimneys Cleaned and Inspected

There’s nothing better than sitting around a fire on a blustery winter night but they’re also a leading cause of house fires every year. In fact there are over 25,000 chimney fires every year in the United States. These fires cause hundreds of millions of dollars in damages each year. Making sure your chimney is clean is a critical part of making sure your home is prepped for winter.

As fires burn, a dark tar like substance called creosote is formed from the combustion process. It builds up and condenses on the walls of the chimney over time. If not cleaned regularly, this buildup can reach a highly flammable threshold. Once a fire is lit and reaches the creosote lined chimney, it will quickly ignite and be extremely difficult to extinguish and contain. These fires can easily spread to other areas of the home and are extremely dangerous.

Click here to learn how you can clean the chimney yourself. Or you can hire a professional to typically clean your chimney for around $200-$500. Find a certified chimney sweep in your area.

10.) Check Your Smoke Alarms and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Whether you have hard wired or battery smoke alarms and CO Detectors make sure they are working properly by testing them. Make sure the batteries are changed and working. For hardwired units, use the test button to make sure they’re working properly.

Carbon monoxide is caused by the incomplete burning of fuels including natural gas, oil, coal, propane, and wood. Carbon monoxide is a tasteless, odorless, and potentially fatal gas. It can quickly become a problem in a closed up winter home without adequate air flow. Many of the mechanicals in our homes are powered by one of the fuels that cause carbon monoxide poisoning. Make sure you have the added protection of a quality detector for the safety of you and your loved ones.

For more information about the dangers of carbon monoxide, check out this article by the CDC.

I hope you enjoy this content and I hope it helps you get your home prepped for winter!

To view all my recommended tools, and winterizing products, make sure you visit my Amazon storefront.

Here are a few other articles and DIY home maintenance tips you may enjoy.

5 DIY Ways to Make Your Home More Energy Efficient

Warm Your Home & LOWER Your Heat Bill

Regularly cleaning your chimney is an important part of keeping your home safe for the winter months. That’s because as you use your fireplace to burn wood for warmth (or just for seasonal atmosphere), a highly flammable carbon based, tar-like substance called creosote begins to build up on the inside of your chimney walls. Over time, this build up can ignite and burn at over 2000° Fahrenheit which can be extremely difficult to extinguish and quickly spread to other areas of your home. 

In fact, on average there are over 25,000 of these chimney fires every year that lead to over $125 million in property damage. (According to the Chimney Safety Institute of America) 

Fortunately, cleaning your chimney isn’t a super challenging task and is something most homeowners can tackle on their own if they choose to. So today I’m going to show you how you can do it. You should add this to your to-do checklist every fall to make sure that your home is ready for the winter. 

The Right Tools

The first thing you’ll need to do is purchase a simple chimney sweeping brush online or at a hardware store. There are a ton of different options available in various sizes so you may want to go on your roof and measure the diameter of your chimney liner to make sure you buy one that fits. I bought one that attaches to the end of a drill on Amazon for about $60. I’ve made a list of all the tools you may need to tackle this project. 

Seal Off the Fireplace

Next you’ll want to use some plastic and tape to tape off the fireplace area or make sure your wood stove is closed and sealed tightly. The cleaning process creates a lot of loose soot and you don’t want all that flying around your house. I recommend using a 4-6 mil plastic and some duct tape to seal off the area thoroughly. 

I also like to place a shop vac hose into the sealed off area so that any loose chimney dust that falls into the fireplace can get sucked up. It’s not a perfect system but it helps keep chimney dust out of your home.

Access the Roof

From there you’ll need to get up on your roof so make sure you can do that safely with a sturdy ladder. It becomes a little more challenging for steeper pitched roofs so make sure you take the necessary safety precautions so that you can access the chimney safely. Depending on the height of your chimney stack, you may need an additional ladder or step stool to get to the top. 

Once you’re up on the roof, remove the chimney cap. It’s usually just a few screws holding it in place. If you don’t have a chimney cap in place, you should definitely purchase one. Not only do they prevent birds and other animals from nesting, or climbing down the liner but they also keep other debris like leaves and branches out of your chimney. To my knowledge they’re also now required during a home inspection so if you ever plan to sell your home you’ll need to have one installed. They’re not very expensive online. Most are adjustable within different size ranges. You can just measure your chimney liner and buy one in the size range that fits. 

Inspect Your Chimney Liner

Next you’ll want to use a flashlight to shine down the chimney and see what you’re dealing with. If you have a GoPro or action camera you can also send that down the chimney to see any visible obstructions and inspect the condition of the chimney. In my case it looks pretty good, just needs to be cleaned. 

Assemble Chimney Brush & Clean the Chimney

From there attach the fiberglass rods to each other and begin to feed them down the chimney. Make sure you have a good respirator, safety glasses, and gloves on hand. If you have one that attaches to a drill like this one, once you’ve fed the rods down the chimney and you’ve reached the length of your chimney liner, attach the other end to the drill. 

I like to start at the bottom and work my way up the chimney, but it doesn’t really matter how you do it. Just work your way through the entire liner, and make sure you clean it thoroughly. Once you think you have it nice and clean, use your flashlight or camera to make sure it all looks good. 

Once your chimney flue (liner) is all cleaned, replace your chimney cap and you’re good on the roof. From there, find your chimney clean out which is usually on the backside of your fireplace or chimney and use a shovel or shop vac to remove all the debris that has fallen. 

Clean the Firebox

After you’ve allowed all the dust to settle, you can remove the plastic on the inside of the house and clean the inside of the fireplace as well. 

And that’s it, you’re good to enjoy many warm fires in your fireplace or wood stove for the winter months!

It doesn’t hurt to burn one of these creosote busting logs in your fireplace every once in a while. They’re designed to help keep creosote from building up, but they should never be used as a replacement for a good chimney cleaning. You can use them if you want to but you also need to clean the chimney every year. 

Update Your Fireplace with a Gas Firelog Set

If you have a gas starter on your fireplace and don’t want to deal with the hassle of a wood fire every year, you can also replace your wood burning fireplace with either a gas fireplace insert OR a gas fire log set. These log sets are a little expensive, but use either natural gas or propane to create a clean burning fire without the hassle of creating a lot of ash and soot. 

So that’s it for this project! I hope you enjoyed it and I hope it helped you get your fireplace ready for the long winter ahead. If you enjoyed this project, here are some other Winter DIY projects to keep your home warm all winter long! 

Warm Your Home & LOWER Your Heat Bill

https://mrfixitdiy.com/winter-is-coming-is-your-house-ready/