Our Fall Maintenance Checklist 2023

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[00:00:20] Eric Goranson: And uh, I wanna make sure that when you have a heavy rain like that safely, you know, put on that, put on that umbrella. It's thunder outside. Don't get anywhere near that. 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?

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[00:01:00] Eric Goranson: Thanks for joining us today. Doesn't matter if you're on the, uh, radio network, the Cock Media Network, or you'll listen to the podcast. We're here to help you with your home. Well, today we're gonna be talking about our round the house, uh, home maintenance checklist for fall. We're cruising into fall, kids are getting back into school, and it's time to do this while the weather's better versus worse.

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[00:01:41] Eric Goranson: Well, today's home maintenance checklist is something that we do every single year, and we kind of update it as we go. 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 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.[00:02:00]

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[00:02:16] Eric Goranson: So, uh, let's dive into our list today. So outside number one, before freezing weather arrives. Now here's how I do it now, this is an important one here because what I'll do is I'll go on my phone and set up appointments on things to do. So use my calendar. So, uh, things that I want to get done before the freezing weather arrives.

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[00:02:57] Eric Goranson: But if you're other parts of the country, you need to be doing that at [00:03:00] different times. So watch out for that. Uh, at the same point you wanna be watching for freezes. You're gonna be draining those in-ground sprinkler systems. Now, uh, some areas they don't blow 'em out at all. My area, it's rarely done here.

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[00:03:31] Eric Goranson: If you're in places like Southern California, you never do that. So, and those sprinklers are running, you know, 365 days a year. So things to consider, things to, you know, depending on your climate. Now here's where we're getting into the more important stuff here. Clean debris outta window wells gutters.

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[00:04:08] Eric Goranson: Now what I'm talking about is our storm drain system is what is going on with those gutters and downspouts. What does that go into? That should go into a system that goes underground out to the curb if it's legal into a dry well system or just. 10 or 15 feet away from the house is a minimum. So I recommend about every two to five years getting those scoped and cleaned out.

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[00:04:53] Eric Goranson: So make sure you get that all dialed in right there and make sure that's working correctly. And if you do have gutters [00:05:00] coming down into downspouts and are draining right next to the foundation, I don't care how much rain you get, it's a good idea to get that in the ground. 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.

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[00:05:31] Eric Goranson: Replace as necessary. You know, if you've got a door that's got a bad sweep on it, Something like that, that can be like leaving a window open. So we wanna make sure and get that stuff tightened up as best we can. And uh, you know, that weather stripping on the windows and stuff, a lot of that stuff you can get right away.

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[00:06:06] Eric Goranson: Inspect doors, windows, siding for holes and cracks, caulk as necessary. This is a great time to do it 'cause it's still warm outside and you can get out there and get that caulked up really quickly and in a matter of hours that's, you know, taken care of. And you can go around and actually do any painting touchup as needed.

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[00:06:52] Eric Goranson: Things were either not flashed correctly or they weren't caulked correctly. And that's a really big issue. So you wanna make sure that you [00:07:00] 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, they're big stretch.

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[00:07:28] Eric Goranson: And, uh, one little thing with caulking, which is kind of funny, and I learned this from Sashco when we were talking about it a couple of years ago. They like to have actually a little bit area, a little bit bigger area to put caulking in because if their caulking stretches 300% and you put just a, a paper thin layer right there that doesn't have much to expand and contract.

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[00:08:12] Eric Goranson: So that's a good one there. Now here's one. If you've got a wood fired. You know, chimney, basically. So if you've got a wood-fired stove, that's one thing. If you've got a fireplace, make sure and have that inspected. And if you're using it as a wood-fired, wood-fired fireplace or stove, make sure you get that cleaned, have it taken a look at.

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[00:08:47] Eric Goranson: That, uh, all the brickwork and stuff is dialed in. Um, if you've got metal, it's always good to have that inspected too, to make sure that you don't have any holes and all of that. So make sure you get that dialed in. But really, that chimney is something that you should be [00:09:00] maintaining and maybe it needs, uh, you know, it's always good to have a chimney sweep go up there if you need to have a tuck pointed or something like that.

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[00:09:29] Eric Goranson: Just, uh, email me and you can just do that at over, at, uh, around the house online.com. Contact us and I'll send you one back around the house. We'll be right back after these important messages. They'll go in.[00:10:00]

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[00:10:25] Eric Goranson: But, uh, kids are back in school. We're creeping up on Labor Day, which means it's time to start working on this, uh, fall checklist. 'cause for many people in the country, many people in our audience, they're really looking towards fall here. And, uh, winter creeps in quick. Uh, and storms do too as well. So, uh, those are things to always take a look at.

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[00:11:03] Eric Goranson: Now, that can be the, uh, vent fans in your bathrooms. It could be the vent fan for your stove. That should be going outside as well, 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 vents, that those are clear. So many times somebody will come in, especially on something that's older than the nineties, Hey, we added more blowing insulation, but guess what?

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[00:11:56] Eric Goranson: 'cause you're in the attic. It's dark. It's a good way to see if anything's in obstructed. [00:12:00] And they can put it right up against it. And then you can do that just visually. It's so much easier with two people. And that means that you've got that going. If you've got those going well and then you've got a good ridge vent or a good attic vent up top, then you're good.

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[00:12:35] Eric Goranson: 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 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 [00:13:00] house to the outside and actually hurt you as far as energy efficiency versus help you.

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[00:13:24] Eric Goranson: Uh, we already talked about chimneys, but, uh, if you've got a C M U or a concrete masonry unit block foundation, making sure that's styled in and really walk around at the same point and make sure that you don't have any cracks in the foundation. I want you to just walk around, look between the siding, the ground, you've got a basement.

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[00:13:56] Eric Goranson: And then you can kind of see what happens on the offset to see if it's moving. [00:14:00] Uh, if you've got cracks at something, definitely you want to have taken a look at. Just don't go caulk that or anything. Make sure that you've got that dialed in. Sometimes you might have to go in there with, uh, carbon fiber or something else in there to make sure that that's held together.

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[00:14:31] Eric Goranson: Make sure that you're looking. To have that inspected by a, uh, you know, I just wanna get a structural engineer looking at that. So make sure that you get that well inspected. Good time to check it. So, uh, now here's the thing here. This is a really good one, and this is something that's protecting your house.

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[00:15:13] Eric Goranson: And these are things that you really wanna 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. Uh, if you walk around the outside, it looked great. Home inspection looked great. Once I started getting into it, I found lots of little spot areas over its, you know, 40 plus year life of really having, uh, carpenter at damage year after year, after year.

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[00:16:00] Eric Goranson: 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. I mean, it's just crazy how those guys can find a hole. You might as well see if you can do what and get 'em a little bit more dialed in because, uh, this is that time of year.

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[00:16:35] Eric Goranson: So, uh, here's one little thing too, I'm gonna 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, uh, tropical storm last week. And, uh, I wanna make sure that when you have a heavy rain like that safely, you know, put on that, put on that umbrella.

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[00:17:19] Eric Goranson: Make sure you get these things dialed in. 'cause if you get these things dialed in, you're gonna be a lot better off. So, uh, and it's gonna stop a lot of damage too. So make sure that you've got that stuff dialed in. By walking around the house, you could see if that storm drain system's not working or whatever those other issues are.

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[00:17:55] Eric Goranson: And so we're gonna talk about that here, this segment, and a little bit more into the next segment. Some [00:18:00] of the things that you should be doing if you have an old house now, one of those is gonna be to walk around and make sure that you don't have any glazing compound. If you have single pane windows, making sure that those are good, go around and, and just kinda lightly tap on 'em and see if you have any loose glass.

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[00:19:10] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to The Round the House Show. This is where we hope to get the most outta your home through information and education. Hey, if you wanna find out more about us, Just look around the house, show out there, or if you wanna find my TV show around the House Northwest and, uh, that can be streamed online.

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[00:19:49] Eric Goranson: So if you look at those videos on around the house online, you'll find our latest stuff. Hayden, right there. We've been talking about our fall maintenance checklist here and uh, some of the stuff that [00:20:00] 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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[00:20:26] Eric Goranson: But really I wanna start doing a little bit more. I want you to be taking a look and inspecting electrical. I wanna 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 in older homes, especially as we get into winter and you have electric heat, you've got space heaters because things aren't insulated.

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[00:21:34] Eric Goranson: So don't have the couch pushed up against it. Don't have things piled up on it. That's how fires happen and we don't wanna see that. Now if you've got an older house, take a look at Ting Fire, T I N G F I R E. It's actually works for any house. This is how you can actually keep. They, uh, your house from having a fire inside with electrical.

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[00:22:16] Eric Goranson: Now, it's not gonna stop you from drilling a hole mountain the new TV up and hitting a power cable. Of course not. But it will tell you that if you have some shorts or potential shorts, Or if you've got other electrical issues. So that's an important one there. And then there's a lot of other little things automatically you can do as well.

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[00:22:50] Eric Goranson: All those are important with old homes. And then just make sure that you're watching the, the cracks and the, and the in the paint outside. Make sure that you're watching the cracks and the [00:23:00] plaster. You wanna make sure things aren't moving around and you have any other issues. Alright, we've been talking about going around.

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[00:23:25] Eric Goranson: Um, you know, if you're smart, if you've got a higher pitched roof, if you like to get up there. Man, just get a, I'm gonna do this for my place. I'm gonna put up a fall protection system so I can just tie off up there. So when I get up to do the holiday lights, the Christmas lights, and, uh, any of my maintenance stuff, I can just tie off in places.

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[00:23:58] Eric Goranson: If you've got somebody [00:24:00] trusted, that is great. Uh, but just keep 'em up there. I don't wanna see anybody up there pressure washing or anything like that. This is a, uh, for a normal, you know, architectural shingle. Uh, there are some soft scrub companies out there that'll do it without damaging, but really, You can use things like zinc to uh, treat that roof moss up there and be very careful with it.

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[00:24:39] Eric Goranson: So that's my latest on my place. So that's an important one. And the pipe jacks, that's the where the pipes are coming up through. Make sure that that, uh, rubber gasket around there is pliable and not ripped or torn. If it's ripped or torn, you're gonna get rainwater down in the house and that's not a good thing.

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[00:25:21] Eric Goranson: So it's a dipped slightly pressure, but it's not ejected. And, uh, this deck has had, um, multiple coatings on it. I finally got mine done out there. I I, it's gonna have to get replaced very soon, but I wanted to put a nice coat on it. We could get it all dialed in and looking good. So, uh, that's an important one there.

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[00:25:59] Eric Goranson: The [00:26:00] biggest part is, I mean, I was often a new deck being built here recently. I was shocked at how bad, um, this deck was being built. I'm happy they stopped and then the contractor got let go before that. 'cause to tell you what, it was a hot mess in there. And, uh, they had actually built the deck incorrectly and it was not fastened into the building correctly.

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[00:26:39] Eric Goranson: And there's a lot of things that you can do with rodents these days to make sure that you've got it dialed in, um, and taken care of. And here's the thing that I always worry about with this is, Is those little holes, you know, size of a pencil, you can get a, a rodents in the house and pest. So all fit into the same kind of thing.

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[00:27:17] Eric Goranson: These kind of things are just little things like that where they're getting in there. So spray foam with the road and stuff works really well and that won't be an issue for you and, uh, get that taken care of. I have stopped him, you know, many times by going through and taking a look and, uh, doing a very hard surf, you know, search around and see, and usually it's like a foundation screen.

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[00:27:58] Eric Goranson: One, I'll go through and make [00:28:00] sure that I got the crawlspace so they don't go in there. And then the second thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go around and make sure that I've got the, uh, the, uh, Inside the house, I've got that dialed in as well. So I'll go around and make sure that I don't have any places around and cabinets where drains come in, that kind of stuff.

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[00:28:31] Eric Goranson: Alright, when we come back, we'll wrap up our fall maintenance checklist. Just as soon as around the house. Returns don't go anywhere.[00:29:00]

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[00:29:18] Eric Goranson: 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. So we've got some great stuff we've been doing with some new products and exciting stuff. So what you do is go over to YouTube and then go at Fox 12, Oregon. Then go over to playlists and then you can find our whole playlist over there.

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[00:30:04] Eric Goranson: And, uh, does it work or not? Well, we put it to the test and then, uh, got a lot of great tips over there. We visited a great last week, just a great company called the Re Greenery, where we did a bunch of great woodworking tips in there. And then, uh, we even actually, uh, had some fun visiting my local hardware store here, Parkrose Hardware.

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[00:30:41] Eric Goranson: Hardwire. And they are a larger home improvement store. They're not like a Lowe's or a Home Depot, but they're not like your little tiny tool rental store either. But it's kind of my little gold mine right there. Because here's the thing, I go to the big box store, the big orange one. I rent their tools.[00:31:00]

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[00:31:20] Eric Goranson: I can't even take those things across the grass 'cause they just are way long in the tooth. And outta the last three times I've rented things. There two of the three times I had to take it back with a job not done because the, the equipment failed. Like I had a post hole digger that I got over there and, and, sorry, home Depot, I'm gonna call you out on it.

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[00:32:01] Eric Goranson: And this is something that if you want to do the inspection, kidding, those lifts can be really cool. So I rented a lift for the week. Weekend went through it all. And I tell you what, this lift when I started had 2.7 hours on it. It was a brand new lift. And that is so nice to have nice new equipment to be working.

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[00:32:42] Eric Goranson: And if you, I, you know, I have no problem. I could be a hundred feet up in a lift and I'm fine, put me up 30 feet on an extension ladder, and I knew that there's a chance I'm gonna fall off, especially when I was building, like I had 12 foot boards. I'm not going up there and doing that on extension ladder, not a chance.

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[00:33:14] Eric Goranson: 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. It's funny, I have a street over from me here that, uh, in that storm drain system, we talked a little bit about it earlier, but this is just another tip outside before we get into the inside.

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[00:33:58] Eric Goranson: Pretty simple. You're [00:34:00] good to go. So, okay, let's go inside, guys. Inside, have your furnace serviced by a licensed professional. So if you've got a boiler system, if you've got a, a heat pump or gas, heat, electric heat, whatever your heat is, make sure you have that serviced and taken a look at. I tell you what, I have had more efficiencies by people coming in and taking their time and really going through and cleaning that up because, I have caught one.

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[00:34:54] Eric Goranson: Anytime I can save money on that is a good thing. But really getting that dialed in and making sure that that furnace [00:35:00] is, is performing and a new filter is good. 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.

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[00:35:30] Eric Goranson: Then have everything working, so everything's draining correctly. Now here's one too. That's an important one. If you're in a northern state as well, make sure, and even in Texas, some places like that. So just if you get below freezing at any time or if it's something that can happen, making sure that the insulated pipes in your garage is good.

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[00:36:06] Eric Goranson: So, uh, anytime you pop some insulation on, you're gonna be good. Uh, you know, one of the things here when you time change times, you know, for our daylight savings time, Test all smoke detectors, but really you should be going through and testing that a lot more often than that, but make sure they're all working correctly.

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[00:36:47] Eric Goranson: You know, those have about a 10 year lifespan before they start tweaking out, or if they're used a lot, that will happen. But make sure you've got a good one. Make sure they're tested. So many times that people hook up those Christmas lights and they'll turn 'em on. They're [00:37:00] like, Hey, what happened to my power?

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[00:37:19] Eric Goranson: 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. You know, anytime that you can get an infestation in your house, I tell you what. If you've got something going on where it's a big infestation of something, sometimes it's just easier to get the pros in and have 'em take care of it because, uh, sometimes they've got some better chemicals and safer stuff to do than just going down to the hardware store and throwing stuff at it.

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[00:38:05] Eric Goranson: Make sure you dispose of 'em correctly. And that's something I really wanna see you do here as well around your house. That is a great fall project. If you have incandescent or those compact fluorescent bulbs, changing those out to the right color temperature, l e d, can one save you money and two, give you so much better light.

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[00:38:45] Eric Goranson: And then the last on our list here that we're gonna hit before we run outta time. Make sure that you've got the crawl space and and basement checked out for water damage. I want you to be testing all of your water. I want you to be testing all of your [00:39:00] humidity in the house. So we've got a lot of testing here in the last few minutes here.

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[00:39:23] Eric Goranson: Spend some time, get it tested. You'll be good to go. All right. Hour one, we're out of time. If you want more information about this list, email me at around the house online.com. We'll be right back after these important messages. Don't go anywhere.