Summer Maintenance for Your Home

Summer temps are officially here in most of the United States. This usually means spending more time outdoors. If your home is looking a little rough after a long winter and spring, here are a few summer maintenance tips to keep your house in great shape every year.

Get things clean

A lot of home issues can be avoided by simply keeping your home’s exterior clean and maintained. A small problem now can become a big (and costly) repair later if left untended.

A few areas to focus your cleaning efforts include:

Grills, patio furniture, play structures: Depending on your set up, materials, and amount of wear and tear, these items may need anything from a quick wash with the garden hose to a full scrub down.
Porches, decks, and patios: For wooden decks, check for any signs of rotting or loose boards. You may also need to reseal with an outdoor sealant product. Replace and repair as needed. At a minimum, you should clean your porch, deck, or patio with a long-handled scrub brush.
Windows (including screens): Clean the interior and exterior of your home’s windows for the most sparkling views of the greens of summer.

Spruce up your landscaping

Some of your spring blooms may be dropping as summer approaches. Pull off any dead parts of plants to keep them growing well. Your yard will thank you.

If you mulch, plan on adding a light layer at least once during the summer months. Spring showers bring water for your plants, but can also wash away ground cover that will need to be replaced.

Prep for hot weather

If you haven’t had really high temperatures yet, now is the time to get ready for the highs that the summer season can bring. Don’t wait for a heat wave to turn on your air conditioning, only to find out that it isn’t working.

A quick visual inspection can give you a good idea if there are any obvious problems. This is also a good time to change out filters inside your home to make sure that the air circulating is free of dust particles or allergens. Plan on running your fan? Give each blade a quick dusting to keep all the particles that built up over the winter months out of the air.