15 tasks before winter arrives. What to do first, what it costs, and what happens if you skip it.
Fall maintenance is about one thing: protecting your home from what winter is about to do to it. Frozen pipes, foundation damage from ice, a furnace that fails on the coldest night of the year — these are not freak accidents. They are the predictable results of skipping fall maintenance tasks that were sitting quietly on a list somewhere.
Work through these 15 tasks before the first hard freeze and you will spend winter ahead of the problems instead of reacting to them.
HVAC technicians get slammed in October and November when the first cold snap hits and everyone realizes their furnace has not been serviced. Book in September. A furnace tune-up costs $80 to $150 and includes a safety inspection, cleaning, and efficiency check. A furnace that fails in January is a $500 to $2,000 emergency repair plus a very cold house while you wait for a technician.
Fall is one of your four annual filter changes. A clogged filter makes your furnace work harder, drives up energy bills, and shortens the life of the system. Swap it before you start running the heat for the season.
Carbon monoxide risk increases in winter when homes are sealed up and heating systems are running. Press the test button on every detector. Replace batteries in anything that sounds weak. Replace any detector that is more than 10 years old — the sensor degrades regardless of battery condition.
Pour a bucket of water into the sump pit. The pump should activate immediately. If it does not, check the float mechanism and confirm it is plugged in. Fall rains and snowmelt are when you need it most. Find out it is not working before that happens.
If you use a wood-burning fireplace, a professional chimney sweep before the season starts is not optional. Creosote buildup in an uncleaned chimney is a leading cause of house fires. A chimney sweep costs $150 to $250 and takes about an hour. Gas fireplaces should have the pilot, igniter, and venting inspected annually.
Fall gutter cleaning is the most important of the two annual cleanings. Leaves and debris that sit in gutters through winter freeze, expand, and can pull gutters away from the fascia board. Ice dams form when gutters are blocked and water backs up under roof shingles — leading to leaks inside the house. Clean gutters before the leaves finish falling, typically in late October or early November. A professional cleaning costs $100 to $200.
Any water left in outdoor pipes will freeze, expand, and crack the pipe. Before the first freeze: disconnect and drain garden hoses, shut off the interior valve that feeds outdoor spigots, and open the exterior spigot to drain any remaining water. If you have an irrigation system, have it professionally blown out with compressed air. A burst pipe inside your wall costs $500 to $1,500 to repair. Winterizing costs 20 minutes and nothing.
Run your hand around the frame of every exterior window and door on a cold day. If you feel air movement, the weatherstripping or caulk has failed. Replacing weatherstripping costs $10 to $30 per door and takes 30 minutes. Recaulking a window frame costs $6 in materials. The energy savings from sealed windows and doors pays back the investment in the first heating season.
Walk the perimeter and look up. You are looking for missing or curled shingles, lifted flashing around chimneys or vents, and any dark patches that indicate moisture. Winter ice and snow sit on whatever your roof looks like going in. Catching a small repair in October costs a fraction of what it costs after a winter of compounding damage.
Ice and heavy snow load dead branches. A branch that looks harmless in fall becomes a projectile in a winter storm. Prioritize anything within 15 feet of your roofline or over your car. An arborist visit to remove problem branches costs $50 to $300 depending on what needs to come down.
Ceiling fans have a switch that reverses the blade direction. In winter, run them clockwise on low speed. This pushes warm air that has risen to the ceiling back down the walls and into the room, reducing how hard your furnace works. Takes 30 seconds per fan.
A garden hose left connected to an outdoor faucet traps water against the spigot even if you have shut off the interior valve. Disconnect all hoses, drain them, and store them before the first freeze.
Pipes in unheated garages, crawl spaces, and along exterior walls are the most vulnerable to freezing. Foam pipe insulation sleeves cost about $1 per foot at any hardware store. Installing them on vulnerable pipes takes an afternoon and prevents a repair that averages $500 to $1,500.
Central heating systems dry out indoor air significantly. A whole-home humidifier attached to your HVAC system makes the house feel warmer at lower thermostat settings — meaning you use less energy to stay comfortable. If you have one, replace the water panel filter before the heating season starts. If you use portable humidifiers, clean them and check that they are working before you need them.
Before winter: confirm you have flashlights and batteries, a manual can opener, a basic first aid kit, and at least three days of non-perishable food and water. A power outage in a winter storm is not a hypothetical. A few minutes of preparation in fall means you are not scrambling when it happens.
Fall maintenance has more tasks than any other season because winter is the harshest season for a home. The problem is not that the tasks are hard — most of them take less than an hour. The problem is remembering to do them at the right time, before the windows close.
Celene and Co sends reminders for every task on this list, timed to arrive before each window closes. Furnace tune-up reminder in September. Gutter cleaning reminder in October. Pipe winterization reminder before the first freeze date in your region. You work through the list as the reminders arrive instead of trying to hold it all in your head.