As the cold weather turns into spring, people all over the country will start to prepare their homes for milder weather. Follow these four DIY tips so you can prepare your house for the upcoming season. They'll protect your property and make your home more attractive.
Clean Your Driveway and Other Outdoor Areas
Image via Flickr by Decorative Concrete Kingdom
The calcium chloride, or rock salt, used to melt snow and ice during winter can cause a lot of damage to your driveway, porch, and siding. Even if you don't use rock salt on your property, your vehicle's tires encounter it and similar substances as you drive around town. Eventually, the corrosive material ends up at your home.
A pressure washer is one of the most effective ways to clean concrete, asphalt, wood, and vinyl siding. You can buy small pressure washers for just a few hundred dollars. If you don't want to own a pressure washer, you can always rent one from your local hardware store.
Replace Your HVAC System's Air Filter
Your HVAC system's air filter works overtime during winter and summer. The more often your furnace or air conditioner comes on, the more dirt, pet dander, and other allergens the air filter collects.
Replacing your air filter at the beginning of spring will improve your home's indoor air quality, lower your heating and cooling bills, and help keep your air ducts clean. Although spring is a good time to inspect your air filter, you should look at it once a month to see if it needs changing. It will collect more debris during some months than others, so it makes sense to check it regularly.
Set Ceiling Fans to Rotate Counterclockwise
Most ceiling fans have switches that change which direction the fan blades move. During winter, you want the blades to move in a clockwise direction that helps circulate warm air throughout your home. As the temperatures begin to warm, you should flip the fan's switch so the blades move in a counterclockwise rotation that blows air straight down to keep you cool.
Inspect and Clean Your Gutters
Winter can cause a lot of damage to your home's gutters. When heavy snow collects in the gutters, the pressure can pull them away from your home. Ice can also cause significant damage.
Since you can expect a lot of rain during spring, you need to inspect your gutters for signs of damage. If they're damaged, fix them so they can direct rainwater away from your home. Broken gutters that don't work properly can increase your home's chances of flooding.
Spring is also a good time to clean your gutters before trees start to grow new leaves. You get to remove clutter from winter and get a head start on next autumn's falling leaves.
April is the perfect time to prepare your home for spring weather. If you tackle these jobs now, you won't have to worry about them during summer, when it's often too hot to wash concrete or replace gutters comfortably.
This is a contributed post.
