It is time for our annual Fall Maintenance Checklist!

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[00:00:28] It's thunder outside. Don't get anywhere near that. Of course, use some common sense here. But really dress up, go outside and take a look around your house. Walk it and see what's going on. Do you have water pooling up against the foundation? Is there a gutter overflowing? What, is there one loose? Do you have water bouncing off the side of a house, a place that is going to be a problem?

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[00:01:10] When it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a lot to know, but we've got you covered. This is Around the House. Welcome to the Around the House show. This is where we help you get the most out of your home through information and education. Thanks for joining us today. Doesn't matter if you're on the radio network with Talk Media Network or you're listening to the podcast.

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[00:01:54] But this is an important one because you know, there's a lot of things when the seasons change, we need to make sure are dialed [00:02:00] right in. And so it's great to get this stuff done. If you're in the Northern states here, it's great to get it done. Before the freezing weather arise, if you're down south, well, you have a little more time to do it, but you know, we are in hurricane season for people down in the gulf and, uh, On the Eastern seaboard.

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[00:02:37] So use my calendar. So, uh, things that I want to get done before the freezing weather arrives. I pick a date. That's a few weeks before when I think it's going to be, and I'll put it on a list that way so I can deal with it later. For instance, our first one before freezing weather arrives. Remove garden hoses from bibs drain in store for winter.

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[00:03:10] Uh, at the same point, you want to be watching for freezes. You're going to be draining those in ground sprinkler systems. Now, uh, some areas, they don't blow them out at all. My area, it's rarely done here. But, uh, grown up in Eastern Washington where I did guess what? We blew that thing out, uh, getting in as soon as the irrigation turned off, which is like September, we hooked it up and blew it out.

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[00:03:51] Now, here's where we're getting to the more important stuff here. Clean debris out of window wells. gutters, downspouts, and storm drains. [00:04:00] So window wells gutters. Yeah, those are always a constant thing. Even if you have the gutter guards, there's many of you still need to be cleaning those things out. Now the storm drains is a bigger one here, and this is something, when was the last time somebody came in?

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[00:04:34] So I recommend about every two to five years. Getting those scoped and cleaned out. Now, what you want to do is you want to catch it before there's roots before roots are a big problem and that kind of thing. So that way that's working. And that is probably 1 of the most neglected plumbing systems at our house is that storm drain system that we put in with newer homes, or if you're trying to You know, keep that from foundation from getting damaged.

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[00:05:14] You know, if you're out in the desert where, you know, you get just a little bit of rain, uh, you know, Mojave or something, I get it, but really you should get that away from the house because it is going to cause foundation damage if it's within 10 feet of the house. So something to consider. And we've talked about that in other episodes.

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[00:05:51] And, uh, you know, that weather stripping on the windows and stuff, a lot of that stuff you can get right away. If it's a newer door, you can probably check and see if there's one that's pre made [00:06:00] for it. But really there's a lot of options at your home improvement store. So make sure that all that weather stripping on the windows and doors.

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[00:06:27] And then you can go around and actually do any painting touch up as needed. So that's, what's really cool is you can actually go through the windows and doors and siding. And get that all cocked up and then just go around and get it touched up that way the house is looking good wintertime and you don't have to worry about water getting in.

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[00:07:04] And that's a really big issue, so you want to make sure that you get that taken care of. And, uh, get it all done. Uh, you know, these guys don't pay me a dime, but I'll tell you what I love working with, uh, as far as exterior caulking, Sashco, their big stretch. That's one of my favorite ones that I've been using that a lot more now.

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[00:07:57] But if you were to put in, you know, a 16th [00:08:00] at speed or an eighth in speed, think about that 300 percent a lot more room to move. So a little bit more caulking is not a bad thing when it comes to that. So make sure you get all that stuff cleaned out, clean up all the old caulking. And, uh, one thing I do like about that is the, uh, Sashkra stuff paints up really well and, uh, looks really nice when it's all said and done.

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[00:08:37] Have it taken a look at. I want to see you do that every year and make sure that you got that. If you're heating your house, that should be probably done once or twice a year, depending on what you've got going. But you really want to make sure that that thing is looking good. That things haven't happened.

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[00:09:21] So you want to make sure to, uh, you know, stop that chance of a chimney fire by getting it swept, cleaned, inspected, and worst case, you can reline that. Now, when we come back, I have a lot more here on our list. And if you want to find out more about this list, or you want me to send you a copy. Just, uh, email me and you can just do that at over, at, uh, around the house online.com.

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[00:09:59] so hot.[00:10:00]

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[00:10:41] Cause for many people in the country, many people in our audience, they're really looking towards fall here in a winter creeps in quick, uh, and storms do too, as well. So, uh, those are things to always take a look at. So we've been talking about outside. Our home maintenance checklist here and try to get this wrapped up in this segment for the [00:11:00] outside part of it.

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[00:11:20] Your range, uh, or cooktop, but really what I'm really talking about is checking a few certain things. So making sure that if you have soft events that those are clear. So many times somebody will come in, especially on something that's older than the 90s. Hey, we added more blow in insulation, but guess what?

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[00:11:57] Uh, with somebody and have them go around the [00:12:00] soft advance as you're standing up in the attic and run that light up through those and see if you can see it because you're in the attic. It's dark. It's a good way to see if anything's obstructed and they can put it right up against it. And then you can do that just visually.

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[00:12:37] If you've got that under control, you have less. Of that, uh, heat bleeding down into the living space, which is good for you. Uh, so that's an important one right there, but making sure that that's all working correctly, I'm not a big fan, big fan. I'm not a fan of the, uh, Of the attic power vents, unless you designed it for it when it was built, because many [00:13:00] times, uh, those power fans on the, on the attic, those can actually create a vacuum up there and pull cool conditioned air from outside, you know, inside your house to the outside and actually hurt you.

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[00:13:47] I want you to just walk around look between the side in the ground You've got a basement do a quick walk around down there and the unfinished spots Making sure that you've got that check around in your garage You know all of those areas and see and if you do [00:14:00] have cracks keep an eye on them You can actually jump online and buy those crack tapes that you put across there to measure them And then you can kind of see what happens on the offset to see if it's moving Uh, if you've got cracks, it's something definitely you want to have taken a look at.

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[00:14:29] But if it's something that maybe it's, you know, Big enough, you can put a credit card in or if it's scoring, you know, an up and down versus a side to side crack. If you've got a horizontal crack, that is a structural thing that you should be looking at. Make sure that you're looking, uh, to have that inspected by a, um, you know, I just want to get a structural engineer looking at that.

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[00:15:15] You let the moisture in and then you get carpenter ants or termites or things like that. Uh, depending on where you're located in the country, and these are things that you really want to make sure you've got dialed in, because this can be, uh, can be pretty rough if you're not, uh, uh, you know, my house, a great example.

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[00:15:54] And so, uh, almost every area I find a, a, a slightly damaged 2 by 4. And if I tear [00:16:00] sighting off someplace. There's always a spot. So make sure that, uh, if you can make sure everything's cocked up, cleaned up and painted up, you're going to be good to go. And that's how you really keep that from happening. And you know, if you've got a lot of ants inside, things like that, those little guys can find a ton of places to be able to go around.

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[00:16:39] And you want to make sure that you've got that, uh, You know, safe for yourself as you're out doing this inspection. So, uh, here's one little thing too. I'm going to add onto this home maintenance checklist as we get into fall and you get some heavy rains out there, and this is especially for you down in Southern California, where you just got dumped on down there with that tropical storm last week.

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[00:17:17] Do you have water pooling up against the foundation? Is there a gutter overflowing? What is there one loose? Do you have water bouncing off the side of a house in a place that is going to be a problem? Make sure you get these things dialed in because if you get these things dialed in, you're going to be a lot better off.

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[00:17:52] And what are some of those maintenance things you need to take care of? So that's a key right there. Uh, we were talking about caulking and stuff earlier, [00:18:00] but really making sure if you've got an old house, old houses are a little bit more. And so we're going to talk about that here, this segment and a little bit more into the next segment.

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[00:18:24] You can hear it rattle. If you've got that, maybe it's time to reglaze. And, uh, that's not an, that's not a hard thing to do. It just takes a little bit of time, but make sure that you've got all that putty caulking and stuff, but really make sure those windows are dialed in. Now, when we come back, we're going to talk a little bit more of it.

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[00:19:21] Welcome back to the round the house show. This is where we help get the most out of your home through information and education. Hey, if you want to find out more about us. Just look around the house show out there. Or if you want to find my TV show around the house Northwest and, uh, that can be streamed online.

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[00:20:00] So if you look at those videos on around the house online. You'll find our latest stuff hiding right there. We've been talking about our fall maintenance checklist here and uh, some of the stuff that we really want to get done before winter hits. And I was talking a little bit about old houses and these are things that we should really start kind of paying attention a little bit more to.

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[00:20:39] I want you to be taking a look and inspecting electrical. I want to see you going around. If you've got an old house with maybe some knob and tube wiring, it is not a bad idea every few years to have an electrical inspection and have somebody go through and take a look at stuff. Because, uh, I always get worried about electrical fires and older [00:21:00] homes, especially as we get into winter.

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[00:21:21] I'm not the biggest fan of, because you can have fires because of it. So make sure that you don't have things piled up as you get into fall around heaters. And this is something that I've always said, even to my kids. Even in the middle of summertime, if you see something bleeding up against the heater or something, I would always tell them to move it because I don't want to get in the habit of thinking of safety as seasonal safety, so don't have the couch pushed up against it.

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[00:22:09] They are paying for some of those. So you might get one of those for free, but our monitors, your electrical system, and make sure you've got that. And that's, that's an important one. There is, uh, monitoring your electrical system and you could have a computer doing it for you. So it's automatic and they will let you know.

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[00:22:44] There's a leak detection devices. Now that you can install in there, especially in old house, we have, uh, you know, plumbing that has been messed with a lot. You can install that in and it will turn off water when it senses a leak, which can be a very, very important. [00:23:00] So that's a good one there. All those are important with old homes.

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[00:23:22] And that is inspecting roof for moss and treat as necessary. And then take a look at the flashing and pipe jacks to make sure they don't have any leaks. Now, how you take a look at that when you're up there. One, make sure that you're following any social safety stuff around your house. Um, you know, if you're smart, if you've got a higher pitched roof, if you'd like to get up there.

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[00:23:57] Uh, and that's, that's something I think [00:24:00] everybody should be doing, be doing as part of their, you know, maintenance around the house. Now, if you've got people going up and do you for doing it for you, that is awesome. Have that roof company go up and take a look at it. If you've got somebody trusted, that is great.

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[00:24:31] Um, for us, it's not this time of year that we get too much Moss. It's really for us the springtime cause it's winter, but, uh, I'm going to be putting up the zinc strips on my roof here on the rest of it. Get that done. So I don't have to worry about it anymore. That will keep it from being too much of an issue.

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[00:25:05] So make sure you're scoping that out really well. Next up here, clean all the decks and seal as necessary. I just went through and did a, uh, a deck project at my house. That was really cool. Got that dialed in. I needed to take, I had a very old treated deck. So this is an old outdoor wood deck and, uh, one of the outdoor, what if it's not in your area is basically like a pressure treated deck, but without the indentations in it.

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[00:25:50] And then make sure that you've got those all just inspected. It's a good time to do that deck inspection and make sure that you've got that all dialed in. I don't want to have any, uh, deck [00:26:00] failures out there. So, uh, when in doubt, jump online. There's some great. Deck inspection forms out there for safety.

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[00:26:23] It was a hot mess in there, and, uh, they had actually built the deck incorrectly, and it was not fastened to the building correctly, and that was going to be a, uh, a big failure, and that was going to be, uh, something that was going to get people fairly hurt when that failed, because it was, uh, eight, eight or so feet off the ground, so, uh, Something that should have been inspected by the building inspector.

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[00:27:02] You can get a, a rodent in the house and pests also fit into the same kind of thing. So first off. If you've got little tiny holes and stuff around that you're worried about, uh, it's really easy. They make spray foam now that is rodent proof. So you can get in there and get those areas dialed in a lot of times.

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[00:27:55] So spend some time, get it dialed in. It's going to look awesome and you'll be good [00:28:00] to go. So, uh, spend some time on that. Stopping those rodents from getting inside the house is good. If you have a crawl space, I do it in two places. One, I'll go through and make sure that I got the crawl space so they don't go in there.

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[00:28:27] And you can use the spray foam in there. I just want to make sure that if you have got a place to stop them, you can, and it's going to be a healthier home without all that rodent stuff anyway. And the more you get it sealed up, we're energy efficient is too. So that's a win on both sides. All right. When we come back, we'll wrap up our.

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[00:29:16] most out of your home through information. And education. Thanks for joining us today. Hey, before we get into the fall checklist here, I wanted to talk about a few things that I've got going on here. And if you need help being inspired for videos, if you have, um, if you're a video consumer, I want you to go over and check out, uh, where all my videos are located.

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[00:30:01] We test out new products. We've been having fun. Like we went on and jumped on and, uh, tested out the flux tape flood prevention. Does that even work? Well, guess what? I test it. I'll tell you what, uh, you know, you got to watch the video, but you'll have to see what I think there. And, uh, does it work or not?

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[00:30:36] And, uh, you know, one thing before we get back to the list, this is something that too, when you're doing maintenance and this is a key right here. And it's called finding your best tool rental place. And I tell you what, in my area here, I found a place that I've been working with right now, Park Rose Hardware, and they are a larger home improvement store.

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[00:31:17] Now they were good tools to start out with, but man, I've rented skid steers and stuff from there. And those tracks are so worn down that I can't run them even in the dirt. Cause I'm just spinning all over the place. And if there's any moisture on it, forget it. I can't even take those things across the grass because they just.

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[00:32:04] So it was an issue with that So I found I mean I was up on a lift this last week doing my uh Doing my front siding where i'm doing my fiber on cladding and this is something that if you want to do the inspection You can Getting those lifts can be really cool. So I rented a lift for the week weekend, went through it all.

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[00:32:40] You can play around up there and you can stand around them and it's just a safer thing. So if you're painting, doing some trimming, take a look at it, um, you know, for the few hundred bucks that it takes to rent a lift, it many times is cheaper than getting hurt. And if you, I, you know, I have no problem, I could be a hundred feet up in a lift and I'm fine.

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[00:33:16] So, in the next one up here, and these are important ones here, uh, that I really want to make sure that we've got covered. So, the last one outside is inspect gutters and downspouts, make sure they're draining correctly. We talked about that. If they go to the street, get your garden hose out and make sure that they're draining all the way out there.

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[00:33:54] So that means that 90 percent of those things are plugged up and not working correctly. So these are things to [00:34:00] really take a look. So get the, get the hose out and worst case, you know, get it hogged out, get out the, uh, hydrojet and, uh, you can either rent one of those or have your local plumbing drain company come do it.

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[00:34:31] More efficiencies by people coming in and taking their time and really going through and cleaning that up. Because I have caught one, I've caught, uh, things that were going to break. That was going to be an issue. Number two, a lot of times when they're in there, they get it fine tuned, which what's that mean?

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[00:35:14] That's a key right there. And something you should be doing every year. Uh, here's a gross one that should be done, but it's something that I like to put on the list just because. You're good to go. Remove hair from drains and sinks, bathtubs, showers. I am not a drain cleaner person. So what I did is I've jumped on Amazon, got some really long tweezers and a couple of those little tiny things where you can go down there and a snake them out and you go through and just remove all of it, get it all cleaned up, get some rubber gloves.

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[00:35:59] [00:36:00] Attics, crawl spaces, wherever, making sure that all the pipes are insulated. And you know, that can be a good fall winter project as well. Even if you've got a crawl space. Even if they're not insulated insulating those pipes and especially the hot one. If you can do that, it saves you a ton of money by going through and doing that.

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[00:36:35] And then, uh, one of the big ones here that always is a holiday thing that happens, I noticed this, it's a pretty common one. So checking your GFCI outlets. Test them. So those are the ones that are usually power in the garage bathrooms and outside. And of course, the outlets by the kitchen sink. Usually, that's where those are located.

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[00:37:12] Well, you've got an old GFCI and it's clicking off too early, or you might have an electrical issue. So make sure. Uh, that, uh, you don't have some kind of a, of a small leak that the GFCI is picking up where you've got something starting to ground out, that could be an issue. So make sure that that's dialed in there and then, uh, make sure that, uh, get under the sinks, all the food areas, look for mice and rodent damage, look for bugs, look for pests.

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[00:37:57] Then just going down to the hardware store and throwing stuff at it. [00:38:00] And then another one here is to inspect all the lighting around your house to make sure it's working, change any bulbs, upgrade them. You know, there's a lot you can do out there. That's a, you know, if you've got the old compact fluorescent bulbs outside, get them swapped out to led, save some energy, make sure you dispose of them correctly.

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[00:38:41] I would make it a mission this fall to go through and replace all of those. Make sure you dispose of them. Some have mercury in them. So follow your local rules for disposing or in recycling those, but really making sure you've got that taken care of. And then the last on our list here that we're going to hit before we run out of time, make sure that you've got the [00:39:00] crawl space and basement checked out for water damage.

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[00:39:21] And if you've got any mold issues or you think you might have mold issues, make sure that you go and get that tested. Air testing twice a year is not a bad thing for your house. And that's something that I would recommend as well. Spend some time, get it tested. You'll be good to go. All right, hour one, we're out of time.

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