By doing these simple maintenance tasks to prepare your home for the Fall, you’ll help keep your home in great shape for many years to come.
Fall is the time when small animals like chipmunks, mice, rats, and squirrels start thinking about finding a warm place to stay for the winter. You don’t want that place to be your home.
These pests will enter your home through small holes, and you’d be surprised by just how small of a hole they can squeeze into. Walk around your home, looking for any potential places of entry. If you find some, make sure to cover or fill them. You can even hire a professional pest control company if you don’t want to take any chances.
Additionally, look for tree branches that are close to the roof of your home and cut them down. These branches could allow the animals to jump to the roof, where they may be able to more easily enter your home.
You want to make sure your home's heating system is in good working order before you head into the fall and the furnace starts putting in overtime. This is a good time to call an HVAC technician to provide maintenance on your furnace. They’ll test that it’s working well, while also looking for any issues.
Sometimes, replacing a small part at this time will prevent major damage down the line. Most HVAC systems only require maintenance once a year, though, so if you took care of this before summer started, you probably don't need to do anything yet.
If cold air is leaking into your home, your heater is going to be working harder than it needs to. You’re unlikely to find air leaks around the windows of a new home, but it’s never a bad idea to check just in case.
How can you find air leaks?
Some people do it just by holding up a hand to a closed window, but if you’d like visual confirmation, hold a lit candle up around the edges. If the window is sealed tightly, the flame will hold steady, but if there’s a leak, it will flicker in the wind. If you see flickers, take care of it as soon as possible.
Gas should not sit in the tank of the long mower over the winter. If you let it sit, the stale gas could harm the engine in the spring when you try to start it up again. When you’ve finished mowing the lawn for the last time this year, take the gas out. The easiest way to do this is to simply leave the machine on until it runs out of gas. Of course, that’s wasteful if you have close to a full tank of gas, so in that case, you may want to siphon the gas out of the tank.
If you think you’ll be mowing the lawn a bit into the fall, it’s smart to pay attention to how much gas you’re putting in the tank. Rather than filling it up each time, consider adding just enough to get you through so that you'll be able to let it run until it’s out of gas when you mow for the last time.
Another option is to use a stabilizer - this is an additive you put into your gas tank, specifically designed for cold storage. You can find it at any Canadian Tire or similar store.
Feeling sad about the end of summer? Cheer up by doing a bit more gardening! Many of the flowers that grow in early spring require you to plant bulbs in the fall. Make a plan now to have springtime flowers.
The staff at your local nursery can help you select styles you’ll love, and they’ll tell you how to properly care for them. With a bit of proper planning, you can even plant varieties that come up at different times, so that just as one variety starts to die off, the next one is starting to sprout.
There aren’t too many things you need to do to prepare your home for the fall, but it’s smart to take on a few tasks like the ones mentioned above. Doing this on an annual basis will keep your home in tip-top shape and prevent future issues.