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LANDMARKS 38 FLOOR SPACE 40
Real Estate
CSeasonal Changes
ERTAIN HOME MAINTENANCE TASKS should be completed each season to prevent structural damage, save energy, and keep all
your home’s systems running properly. These home maintenance tasks are most important for the North- west in fall and winter.
Preparing for fall and winter in the Northwest means gearing up for wet and inclement weather. In the North- west, home maintenance requires more attention to weathering cold and snow.
Key maintenance tasks to perform
Check your drainage. In early fall, when the weather is still nice, walk slowly around the house and inspect the ground where it meets the foundation. Soil should not be touching siding and should slope away from the house, dropping at least 6 vertical inches over the first 10 feet.
Clean gutters. It’s imperative that your gutters are ready for the heavy workout they’ll receive from winter precipitation. Most homeowners in the Northwest will need to clean their gutters several times during the fall, Katen says, because the leaves won’t be finished coming down until the first big winter rain or snowstorm. Make sure to walk outside in your rain gear during a downpour to inspect the flow of water through the gutter system and ensure there are no obstructions.
In the mountainous areas of Idaho and Montana, your gutters may need heat tape to keep ice from form- ing, says Lamar Rase of Complete Home Inspections in Missoula. “Make sure the tape is intact and ready to go so that you don’t have ice and snow damming up there,” Rase says. If the tape has detached from the gutter or has lost heating power, contact a roofing contractor or electrician to get an estimate for repairs.
Have your furnace checked and tuned up. Sched- ule a fall appointment promptly to get your furnace ready for winter (it’s a good idea to have a biannual HVAC ser- vice contract so that fall and spring tune-ups are auto- matic). Find out what items are on your HVAC profes- sional’s fall checklist and ask questions about any main- tenance. The service should include checking fuel con- nections, burner combustion, and the heat exchanger. Expect to pay $50 to $100 for a furnace tune-up.
Check your furnace filters monthly and change them whenever they’re dirty. Inspect and vacuum out the
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is often so dry in the Northwest, standing water typi- cally doesn’t show up in a crawl space until January or so, Katen says, when the soil has been fully re-saturated. If you have standing water, try to pinpoint whether it’s coming from pipes inside the house or from water flow- ing in through cracks in the foundation. For advice on fixing the problem, consult a credentialed home inspec- tor or building contractor.
Prune trees. Contact with trees is bad for roofs and siding; friction and trapped moisture shorten the lifes- pan of building materials. All major pruning should be done in winter, when trees are dormant. Fall and winter is also a great time to tackle any landscaping projects and plant perennials, shrubs, and trees, as they’ll have a chance to get established long before dry weather hits.
Spending a weekend or two on maintenance can pre- vent expensive repairs and alert you to developing prob- lems before they become serious.
Written by Karin Beuerlein, Submitted by NMAR PR Committee
floor grates and return duct regularly, especially if you have children or pets.
Check weather-stripping and caulk on doors and windows. Walk around outside and examine the areas where window, door, and corner trim meets the siding; caulk any gaps. Open doors and check the condition of the weather-stripping. If the doors are drafty or the old weather-stripping foam is crumbling, remove it and apply new weather-stripping.
Disconnect hoses and winterize your lawn irriga- tion system. These steps are important anywhere you experience freezing temperatures—keeping water from freezing in pipes prevents potentially expensive repairs.
If you have a lawn irrigation system, make sure all the water has drained from the system before the first freeze. Depending on the type of system you’ve installed, this may require the assistance of a professional. A pro charges $50 to $150 to winterize an irrigation system.
Take a flashlight and visit your crawl space in January. This is where moisture and drainage prob- lems can cause the most damage. Because the summer
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SEPTEMBER 9, 2015 // FLATHEADBEACON.COM