Spring is the perfect season for being outdoors. The cold winter has past and the hot summer is a couple of months away. So now is the time to get out doors and give you house a little spring cleaning and maintenance it is needs. A little cleaning and maintenance now while the weather is nice, and it is fun to be outside, will save you a lot of money later.
Top Spring Cleaning Recommendations:
Let’s take it from the top with the roof – If your shingles with dark stains have an air born algae that not only looks ugly but it also reduces the life of your roof shingles. It is literally eating the shingles away and keeps getting worse every year because the growth spreads fast. Replacing a roof is very expensive and algae can reduce the 20 to 30 years lifespan by 25%.
A simple solution may be to hire a professional to clean the roof. It will only cost a few hundred dollars and the roof will look brand new and last longer too.
While you’re checking out the roof, check your flashing and rubber boots around each vent pipe for cracks or missing sealant. It is common to replace roofing boots every 5 to 7 years because the hot sun will dry them out. Dried out roofs often cause leaks.
Look at the sealings and caulk. Sealing the joints this spring will be a lot less expensive than replacing wood rot on the exterior and the inside water stained ceilings that the leak caused.
Lastly, don’t forget to clean the gutters too. Full gutters will not allow rain water to flow out and away from the foundation of the house. Instead, it pushes the water and moist debris into the fascia board causing wood rot behind the gutters. This issue can be very expensive to repair so avoid this with your spring cleaning.
Power wash, with low pressure, the exterior of your house and deck to remove
dirt, mildew, mold and pollen that has built up from the past humid summer, cold winter and flowering spring. Without spring cleaning these unsightly adherents on your house will spend the rest of the year eating through your exterior paint. This will cause you to spend money on painting sooner than you should. With a good coat of paint, a regularly cleaned house may last 5 to 7 year before a need for exterior paint.
Decks usually need to be sealed every 2 to 4 years. After power wash cleaning, seal the deck to preserve the wood. Without sealant decks weather to a lifeless grey color, boards warp, dry out, crack and rot. While you having fun with that power washer you might as well do the sidewalks and driveway too.
Washing the windows will streaks caused by power washing and will enhance your view out them all year long.
Keep the Air Conditioning Unit in Tip Top Shape
Spring is a great time to get your unit service and checked. It is much better to know if the refrigerant or something is leaking now vs when it is 100 degrees outside!
Don’t forget your yard!
Make sure to make time to move the pile of leaves away from the foundation of the house, trim away tree branches that are touching the roof and prune the shrubs back more than you think you should.
Debris against the foundation leads to water in the crawl space. Tree branches damage wood exterior and roof shingles in storms. Shrubs, if not pruned well, will grow out of proportion to the house.
You have probably seen shrubs that take over the sidewalk, cover up the windows and smother the porch. This takes away from curb appeal of the home and is one of the most costly things to correct when it’s time to sell. If they get too big and out of control they can’t be pruned back to the size needed to be attractive. They have to be removed and replaced with new landscaping. Starting over is never fun and also expensive.
After pruning, fertilize the shrubs and lawn, add some fresh mulch and spray for bugs.
Now go fire up the grill! It’s time to enjoy the great outdoors and your spring exterior cleaning is complete!