Stay Ahead on Home Safety with These Fall Maintenance Tips

While the fall months bring about an endless array of fun, seasonal activities to enjoy, it’s also important to take some time to prepare your home for the upcoming winter weather before you get too wrapped up in visiting your favorite pumpkin patches. While the below home checklist may not apply to you if you’ve recently purchased a new construction home from our incredible team at McGuinn Hybrid Homes—it’s never a bad idea to focus on preventative maintenance measures as well. 

Keep the cold air out

Especially before the winter weather kicks in, giving the entire exterior of your home a once-over is always a great place to start. Keep an eye out for any cracks around your windows and doors, and by simply adding some sort of weather stripping or sealing exterior caulk to these locations, you will be able to cut down on any unnecessary heating costs and ensure that no additional moisture gets into your home.

Look at your landscaping

Keeping with the exterior checklist, it’s important to give your trees a little extra attention as well. When you’re checking the health of your trees, you’ll want to keep an eye out for any noticeable differences in leaf colors or any dead branches. If you find any trees that are unhealthy, you will want to take immediate action to get them either pruned or removed as this will prevent them from causing any damage to your home if any winter storms come through the area. 

Inspect your roof and gutters

Finally, the last step you’ll want to take before you move on to inspecting the interior of your home is inspecting the roof and cleaning out the gutters. During this step, you’ll want to check for any cracked, curled or missing shingles and make sure you replace them immediately. Sometimes you might see a few stains on your shingles, and if you’re ever in doubt on whether or not they might be signs of mold or other growths, it’s always a great idea to bring in a professional to take a look. 

Cleaning out your gutters isn’t necessarily a fun task, but as a homeowner, it’s a necessary one. As the fall season progresses, your leaves will continue to pile up in your gutters, potentially causing drainage problems—so you’ll always want to keep this item on your to-do list. 

Check your HVAC system

Inside your home, the first thing you’ll definitely want to check on before the weather drops is your HVAC system. A simple visual inspection can show you any signs of physical damage that might be prominent, but if anything seems out of the ordinary, you’ll want to set up an appointment to have a professional come take a look. Once you’ve done your own inspection, however, make sure you change out the filter as a dirty filter can cause major damage to the system and cause your heating bills to go up. 

Replace batteries in detectors

Finally, it’s prudent that you check every carbon monoxide and smoke detector you have in your home. Typically, it’s always suggested that homeowners replace the batteries in all of these detectors twice a year—so once you’ve finished replacing them, don’t forget to set a reminder to do it again in six months.

Put your trust in a team that cares

Our team at McGuinn Hybrid Homes has been building homes around Columbia, South Carolina for years, and our team of experts constantly focuses on building quality-constructed homes for our homeowners to live in for many years to come. If you’d like to learn more about our sought-after communities and functional floor plan designs—give us a call at (803) 917-5583 or fill out our online form today.