Spooky, Scary Home Maintenance: October Home Maintenance Checklist

Nothing is scarier these days than opening up a utility bill. Our monthly maintenance checklist will help you ensure that your home is running efficiently for those cold, winter months. 

First though, we need to get some summer and fall debris out to clear the way for the winter season. You’ll want to start this month’s list by cleaning your gutters.

Clean Gutters

Time to decorate for Halloween, but before you get all of your cobwebs hung with care, you need to clean out those gutters. Debris from summer and fall storms, falling leaves, and more may be clogging up your gutters. Grab a ladder, a friend, and some gloves and get to work making sure you remove all dirt and debris. 

You may want to hire a professional handyman for this one or a teenager down the street if you have mobility issues or a fear of heights. Just make sure that if you go the teenager route, they know what you expect and they’re careful, too. You do want to complete this task first, too, and take advantage of some warmer weather before it gets too cold. 

Shut Off Exterior Water Supply 

Now that many areas have had that first frost and plants are slowly dying, already dead, or hibernating until the spring again, it’s time to turn off your exterior water supply. Simply find your outside water valve and all faucets, and turn them to the off position. You may need some pliers if you have a particularly stubborn head, but this one is pretty easy. 

Change Direction of Ceiling Fans 

Usually everyone knows that hot air rises, but not many may know that you can flip your ceiling fans to push air down. Flipping your fans could save you a pretty penny on your heating (be it gas or electric) bill. Instead of assisting the air up and towards your attic or roof, you’ll be keeping it in the room— at least a little bit longer. And, with the rising cost of energy, you need all the help you can get. Simply follow the instructions in your manual for your specific fan or do a quick search on Google or YouTube if you’re not sure how to complete this task.

Change Furnace Filters

We’ve done this one before as well, and if you had your HVAC professional out to see you last month, you should be covered as well. In case you aren’t or need a refresher, head back to our previous blog here. 

Change Damper Direction 

Again, if you called your HVAC professional last month to help winterize your home, this may already be taken care of as well. If you didn’t call your favorite technician last month, you may want to do it now and add adjusting your HVAC dampers to the list for them. 

If your home has a whole-home humidifier, you already know that, when used properly, it adds moisture into your house during the dry season and keeps moisture out during the wet, summer season. If you have a premium HVAC system with zoned heating and cooling then this task will be easy: your dampers are automatically controlled by your unit. If you do have dampers, you’ll find them on the main ducts within a few feet of your furnace. 

To adjust your dampers, you simply complete the following steps: 

1. Turn your fan to the ON position. If you do not have a fan only setting, then you can just turn your system on so it is constantly running while you complete the entire task. 

2. Open your dampers. Next, you want to open every damper that you have so it is fully open. Typically, this means turning each lever so that all levers are pointing the same direction as your ducts.

3. Open your registers. Next, you need to go into each and every room of your house and open every register in the room. Usually, there’s one in each room, but there may be two or more in larger spaces. 

4. Label your duct. If your ducts aren’t already labeled, follow each as long as you can and slowly turn the damper to the closed position, one by one, until you know which duct serves which room. Then, this is crucial, LABEL each duct (so you don’t have to do this again). This will allow you to have maximum comfort in your home, while saving money and having your unit work most efficiently. If no one is ever in that guest bedroom, then you can keep those registers and that duct closed. 

5. Adjust as necessary. Finally, you want less airflow upstairs and more airflow downstairs in the winter. Again, this is because warm air rises, so that air will naturally flow upstairs and allow your unit to service each room of your house appropriately. Then, because each duct and damper is now labeled, you can make adjustments as needed. If you have guests, open that guest room. If you have a ranch-style home, keep the air flowing in rooms that are most-often used, etc. Note: don’t make more than one adjustment at a time and allow a half day or so in between your adjustments. You want to make adjustments slowly so that you can find the perfect comfort level for your home and use your unit effectively and efficiently.

If you have fireplaces as well, you’ll want to ensure the flue in your chimney is open for the winter months as well. Newer homes may just have a switch conveniently located around your fireplace, but you may have to open it manually as well. 

That’s it for October. Again, the goal is to make sure everything is running smoothly before that winter cold settles in for the season. As always, be sure to call in the experts if you find yourself in over your head and feel free to reach out to our team if we can be of any assistance!