For decades each spring we update and bring to you our Spring Home Maintenance Checklist. This list gives you a great start to what you should be doing each spring to maintain your biggest investment.... Your Home. If you want a copy of this for your records feel free to reach out and contact us on the website at www.aroundthehouseonline.com

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[00:00:11] Caroline Blazovsky: Real Quick did you hear about the flying spiders that are going to be approaching us this season? I think it's an east coast thing,

[00:00:21] Caroline Blazovsky: spiders are going to be like going through the air and like landing on things. They said like,

[00:00:26] Eric Goranson: I'm like, that's fine. Happy that's an east coast thing. You guys enjoy flying spiders coming out of the sky. So, which is an important one. Which means on the next one, repair any weather damage holes, cracks in the following roof, siding, trim and windows. So those flying spiders don't get back into your house.

[00:00:50] Intro: to know this is around

[00:00:55] Intro: Welcome to around the house with Eric G and Caroline B [00:01:00] today, we're going to be talking about home maintenance checklist for springtime. I load Caroline.

[00:01:07] Caroline Blazovsky: Looking at this list. And it's reminded me of all the things I have to do.

[00:01:11] Eric Goranson: That'll get a lot to do this spring. Right. And I've already been knocking a few of these things out already. So it, uh, you know, maintenance is a big deal with the home, right? I mean, if you don't stay on top of it, the place can follow around around you just because of all problems.

[00:01:27] Caroline Blazovsky: there's so much to do and you sorta have to have a schedule.

[00:01:34] Eric Goranson: one. If you want a copy of this checklist and over to around the house, online.com and just go to the contact us page and you can, uh, fill that out and I will email you a PDF copy of this over so you can work down the whole list and save it for the spring projects.

[00:02:10] Eric Goranson: And now we've got it here today. So this is our home maintenance checklist for the springtime. And of course it starts out where outside. It's in so many places in the country, you know, especially when it's cold and snow and, and you know, if you're in the Minneapolis area and you've been buried in snow for a lot, or, you know, you just, there's sometimes around your house, doesn't get paid attention to a lot in the wintertime, my house cause of rain all the time and I'd go out there and inspect everything.

[00:02:48] Caroline Blazovsky: think like I'm looking at the number one, right? So I think a lot of the storms too, like why is it when you come into spring, you always have to do a stick cleanup. Like there's always sticks. And [00:03:00] like these big branches that fall, I guess it's the winter and the snow and the wind.

[00:03:08] Eric Goranson: Ah, see, I've got 12, like 75 to 275 year old trees on my property. So stick clean up for me is like a daily event. So it's, it's bad, but you know, in the wintertime it wasn't a daily event to get cleaned up. So you're right around my house.

[00:03:35] Caroline Blazovsky: Lackey cause in his area. So he can put these into a giant bin and they will come and collect them from the county, I guess then allow you to do like debris cleanup.

[00:03:47] Eric Goranson: It's just part of our normal trash pickup. So we have yard debris. You know, we have the big kind of, you know, the city style yard bins, where they pick them up with the arm and the, and they pick it up. So it's the big trashcan. So I actually have two of those for our property here.

[00:04:17] Eric Goranson: But that's the first thing on the list. Clear leaves and other debris from around outside of your air conditioner and remove the cover. If you use one of them. So, yeah. And

[00:04:34] Caroline Blazovsky: So, you know, they're not cutting up the tractor and that

[00:04:54] Eric Goranson: That's where that, uh, you know, his cutaway. So you could get light down into there, get all the junk out of there to let that water [00:05:00] drain out of there correctly. That way you don't have water issues down the road. You know what

[00:05:10] Eric Goranson: squirrels that use those.

[00:05:12] Caroline Blazovsky: that's a pretty, I mean, I don't know, that's kinda tight for a squirrel, right. But I guess I get up.

[00:05:29] Eric Goranson: So I don't know why I just saw one a couple of days ago on my roof from like a squirrel on the roof. I hate that I don't have any trees, but they will jump from the trees over onto the roof. They

[00:05:44] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Yeah. So that's not good. So here's one thing I have on the list.

[00:06:02] Caroline Blazovsky: Totally. I have most of my two fronts go into the ground and then they go out under the driveway and come out in the back of the property somewhere.

[00:06:20] Eric Goranson: No, and yeah, you want to get them in the ground, just get them away. That way, that water, you got to think of water coming out of those.

[00:06:45] Eric Goranson: And you think about it. If you get an inch of rain, On your roof, usually on average, and these are average numbers, depending on how your is designed, you can get 55 gallons of water out of one inch of [00:07:00] rain that drops right next to the foundation. That's a lot of water

[00:07:12] Caroline Blazovsky: Breeds in, in the form of water vapor. So either way, no good,

[00:07:33] Eric Goranson: Now, another one that's important is trim back overhanging limbs on trees. You don't want to have any of the shrubs or trees. Touching your house. And quite frankly, I like to have a space there. She, you can walk between the house and any shrubbery or landscaping. So making sure that's clear off the house.

[00:08:15] Caroline Blazovsky: So if you get a piece of glass in that mulch and you get a lot of direct sunlight and it can ignite, and then you also can get what's called, um, catapult catapulting mold, which like sprays out all over the house. If you have mulch right there. So I like a perimeter to that's a one.

[00:08:30] Eric Goranson: Cause one, it hurts your house too. It gives a chance for rodents and pass the climb up to get into that as well. So yeah, you just don't want to do in that destruction to it. And then while you're out there, check that weather stripping on the windows and doors. Make sure it's all working. I've got some projects to do on my house as well.

[00:08:58] Caroline Blazovsky: did I, you know [00:09:00] what happened yesterday? I was walking in the house and all of a sudden I opened the glass, um, uh, the screen door, you know, and the glass decided I was going to pop right out of the holder and I'm like, okay, so now I need a new front.

[00:09:18] Eric Goranson: Not good. So, yeah. And then making sure on all your roof, fence and louvers and stuff, any of that ventilation going up in there, make sure you don't have that all jammed up with dirt and make sure all of the, that ventilation pieces. For your roof are clear and working.

[00:10:10] Eric Goranson: welcome back to the, around the house. Show her. We've been talking about our spring home maintenance checklists. Now, Caroline, this one here. Kind of inspired by Metallica, just a little pear, right? See that I was inspired Metallica. Yeah. So seek and destroy early signs of bird and singing, insect nest and key spots on those eaves ledges, all that stuff.

[00:10:38] Caroline Blazovsky: Yellow jacket nest. I've got one. I've got to tape up and throw some soap and peppermint oil. They do not like that. So I throw it up in the old nest and it sort of deters them from coming

[00:10:54] Eric Goranson: Cause man, some of those that can be super dangerous, you know? And if you're up in like north of [00:11:00] Seattle where you got the murder Hornets, you want to make sure you got those things are controlled. Yeah.

[00:11:11] Eric Goranson: holy cow.

[00:11:18] Caroline Blazovsky: real quick. Did you hear about the flying spiders that are, that are going to be approaching us this season? I think it's an east coast thing,

[00:11:28] Caroline Blazovsky: spiders are going to be like going through the air and landing on things.

[00:11:32] Eric Goranson: they're going to like drop out of the sky. I'm like, that's pretty cool. Happy. That's an east coast thing. You guys enjoy flying spiders coming out of the sky. So, which is an important one, um, which means on the next one, repair any weather damage holes, cracks in the following roof, siding, trim and windows.

[00:11:54] Caroline Blazovsky: Yes. And I have woodpeckers. I've like, I have all these animals that like to like [00:12:00] make little niches in my house. So I have a woodpecker loves my Cedar siding and this year he didn't do it though. I have to admit big holes in siding for perish

[00:12:09] Eric Goranson: I will tell you this with woodpeckers. They are attacking your house. Then you had some kind of a bug or softwood infestation right there that they were going for.

[00:12:28] Caroline Blazovsky: I didn't have beetles. I don't know what they were going for, but

[00:12:44] Eric Goranson: Cause they're, you know where they're on the metal, which I love here, this

[00:13:04] Intro: Back into my house.

[00:13:11] Eric Goranson: If you didn't do it in the fall, getting that thing dialed in, get the chimney sweep out there. You know, if you've got a, a brick issue where it looks like things are cracking are coming apart, get the Mason out there to take a peek at it, make sure that's all dialed in and taken care of. So that way, when it comes around to using it next year, it'll be ready to go.

[00:13:51] Caroline Blazovsky: So I put a seal in, on my block to make sure it stays, you know, waterproofed. Yeah.

[00:14:08] Eric Goranson: So let them be, you're a professional on that one. Now's the time to is if you're not getting into that freezing weather out there, like in my area, you know, we're not getting down into those twenties at night. It's time to remove those outdoor faucet. You know, covers and all that stuff. Now, the cool thing with that is, is make sure that you don't have any drips and leaks out there too.

[00:14:39] Caroline Blazovsky: I'm amazed at so many people don't cover their faucets in the winter time. Like they really don't and they have these great, like, just little covers that fit right over to make sure that, you know, you're getting insulated.

[00:14:55] Eric Goranson: Yeah. You know, you got the frost-free ones and you don't get that cold. It's really not that big a deal though. If you do [00:15:00] have the frost-free, if you've got a newer house or they've came in and replaced them with the frost-free ones, the new frost-free ones, what happens is, is that that place where the water turns off can be 6, 8, 10, 12 inches back inside the wall where it's.

[00:15:33] Eric Goranson: So you come in and snap in the hose and then the water comes up. And then you can use your host, but it's all flushed with the walls. You don't have to worry about that. All

[00:15:44] Eric Goranson: that? I need that. Yeah. We'll talk about that in a later show. We'll have them

[00:15:49] Caroline Blazovsky: It's a

[00:15:55] Eric Goranson: And, um, it just pops right in such a really clean look. It looks [00:16:00] really good on the outside of the house.

[00:16:06] Eric Goranson: covers on, yeah, I've got one still that, but we're going to be kind of remodeling that area. So I'll swap that out when the time comes on it, but it's not leaking or dripping right now.

[00:16:31] Eric Goranson: Like I've used. We don't have underground sprinklers at my house now, but we've got a ratio. I use this one or it's called ratio, R a C H I O. It is a smart sprinkler timer. So it will save you tons of. Because if it's raining outside, it won't turn your sprinklers on. If it goes, Hey, it rained heavily the day before, and we'll go, your lawn doesn't need it rain so much yesterday.

[00:17:20] Eric Goranson: So that way the water doesn't run down the clay surface and end up pooling. So it's really cool. And the ice sprinkler

[00:17:38] Caroline Blazovsky: Basement and moisture issues inside. Oh

[00:18:02] Eric Goranson: People don't even think about that. Those are like big air filters. And if you actually clean them and they get need to be replaced too, sometimes that they get gray, they get washed out from the sun and they look really, really bad or.

[00:18:19] we

[00:18:22] Eric Goranson: Just as soon as around the house returns,

[00:18:58] Eric Goranson: the house with Eric, [00:19:00] Jean Caroline, B I'm Zeke sky. And I'm going to show you how to shred it out

[00:19:09] Eric Goranson: Welcome back to the round, the house show. And Carolyn and I have been sitting here talking about. Our spring cleaning checklist today. And she was just teasing. When we went out to break about your trick for cleaning those window and door screens.

[00:19:27] Caroline Blazovsky: Cause sometimes you can't right. It's up on the second floor and it's just not. The most, yeah, it's not fun and you just can't do it. But literally I love paper towels. I take, I use bounty and I like it and I kind of wrap it up really thick, and then I wet it and then I just take it and wipe up and down across that screen, like, you know, just like you're scrubbing the screen, but just, you don't want it to break apart.

[00:20:03] Eric Goranson: great. Nice. What I've done in the past is I've taken my screens down.

[00:20:31] Eric Goranson: I've actually blown it off from that

[00:20:50] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And it's so much easier to clean the windows now that you've got the screens off, so you can actually get the windows cleaned as well. So it's nice to get up there. It's so satisfying on a sunny day to go up [00:21:00] there and get that cleaned up. And I always like take a razor blade up there too, so I can get a, I like to get up, even if I'm on a ladder, I'll bring a razorblade up to clean off any like bug droppings or paint from over-spray or whatever else, and really get that window super clean.

[00:21:24] Caroline Blazovsky: Yeah. Or you can, I also like wrap paper towel around the screwdriver so I can get into all those. Nixon channels and crevices, and I get those bugs. You guys have these out there. They create, they look like they create straw or Hey, there's some kind of like spider or worm or something.

[00:21:58] Caroline Blazovsky: Soap and water works great [00:22:00] too. Yeah,

[00:22:15] Caroline Blazovsky: so fast. Oh yeah, those elder they're little black ones with the red on the back. We have.

[00:22:20] Intro: cluster.

[00:22:24] Eric Goranson: Brutal. I think that cleaner, you got the hot side of the house. The better off you are, but neither nonetheless, I don't like to see people getting up and hitting those with pressure washers and stuff. Cause you're just going to be some water damage and you're gonna hurt some staff. So be careful with what you do on that next on the list.

[00:22:58] Eric Goranson: You know, I got lucky last year [00:23:00] putting a brand new system in like six or seven weeks after I put the new system in, we had 117 degree temperature in my town here in Portland, Oregon. And. I was happy he was cruising. Cause I could be comfortable inside my house. And with about 40 or 50% of the people in my area, not having air conditioning, that was for those people.

[00:23:40] Eric Goranson: Definitely you got it. Yeah, that's a, that's a huge one right there. And then when you're outside checking those, uh, bricks or blocks for crack border loose joints, and then checking all those painted surfaces for paint, failure, water, damage, mildew, all that stuff. What do you need to touch up around the house there?

[00:24:13] Eric Goranson: Um,

[00:24:37] Eric Goranson: and then making sure the caulking where two different materials meet or like the wood siding joins a foundation wall or inside corners, or when windows meet siting and trim, making sure that's all good to go.

[00:25:09] Eric Goranson: And so they're starting to get foggy on the inside. And I mean, these are 1977 windows, so they're due. Yeah.

[00:25:20] Eric Goranson: And now an important one here. So you should be doing is inspect that foundation. Take a look for any cracks. And if you're worried about cracks, was that there last year, just take pictures of it, save it on your phone.

[00:25:51] Eric Goranson: Yeah,

[00:25:53] Eric Goranson: They're not going to sell you on something. I know too many foundation contractors out there that will come out and sell you [00:26:00] a $10,000 fix on something that is just something that is cosmetic. And I don't want to see that happen so that structural engineer will tell you, if you have a problem in two, you can pay them to draw a report up to tell you how to fix it.

[00:26:18] Caroline Blazovsky: is really important now by you and also in California and other earthquake zones, because you could have minor earthquakes or if you're prone to getting earthquakes, right. That could definitely cause some damage. And you need to take a look at that more so in those areas, I think, than others,

[00:26:37] Eric Goranson: So clay soil can be a huge one. So if you've got clay soil and think of clay, soil is a sponge. So if you have. Kitchen sponge. And you set it up on the window. So for a couple of days, you don't have that thing all shrinks up and gets out of shape. Right? Gets all shrunk up front. That's what clay soil does.

[00:27:16] Eric Goranson: They're sitting on clay soil. So when it sits down on that, if they did that house in the summertime, when it was super dry, for instance, now what happens is that you've built that house on something that is shrunk. And then when the water gets back in during a rainy season or during the winter, it's now expanding.

[00:27:53] you

[00:27:57] Caroline Blazovsky: That was because the lifting and raising. And we have, [00:28:00] I think we have a lot of clay here in the Northeast, right? Because I mean, we have that, at least it looks really clay. We have that ready type of soil, which is different. I think you have more rocks and stuff out there, right? Where you are

[00:28:10] Eric Goranson: I have rocks, but if I go a mile away, it's. Geesh it's a Masti claim ass. I can do pottery in the backyard, off the dirt. You know,

[00:28:25] Eric Goranson: Exactly. It's it's just not good.

[00:29:09] Intro: Hi, everybody.

[00:29:17] Intro: G and the beautiful Caroline. Welcome

[00:29:39] Caroline Blazovsky: I love that. I need that because I forget my car is like the last we changed. It's

[00:29:59] Eric Goranson: And [00:30:00] all these other things, the light switches, you know, all this stuff changed, which I was pretty stoked.

[00:30:10] Eric Goranson: technology. So, all right. We're going to run out of time. So let's jam on this inside list because we just spent all that time outside. Let's get inside and do this one here is kind of fitting because Tesla's smoke alarms and carbon monoxide testers. Like we talked about.

[00:30:27] Caroline Blazovsky: Make sure you didn't take the batteries out. Cause it was annoying you and you forgot to put them back in. So make sure

[00:30:47] Eric Goranson: And add some humidity into my house. I don't have a humidity humidity in the house. So I did that. I got a steam generator. Why not? It's a perfect way to add humidity. Well, outside of that bathroom is the [00:31:00] bedrooms and stuff out there. And I've a vaulted ceiling where that steam came out the door, went up and started sending, setting off the smoke detector because it was reading the S the

[00:31:10] Intro: I asked smoke.

[00:31:35] Caroline Blazovsky: And just to throw that out too. If you got a septic system, you better get on a schedule to have that cleaned out too. That kind of goes with some pump. I'm thinking some pump septic,

[00:31:46] Eric Goranson: depending on what it is on. You know, I don't know. A lot of times I hear anywhere from every five years or so, you should have that thing that's mapped out and cleaned up.

[00:31:55] Caroline Blazovsky: do it at all. They let it go like 40

[00:32:15] Eric Goranson: I don't like to use drain cleaners unless it's one of the all natural ones or.

[00:32:30] Eric Goranson: Just do it. Mary gum. There you go. Now here's one. If you've got old wood windows, making sure that loose, buddy, there's no loose putty around those, making sure if you've got a reglaze windows. You can do that. That's for you, all of you with old houses out there, making sure you're there on a regular window.

[00:33:02] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Make sure those things are working. I actually have a, a tester that you can just plug in and hit it and it'll test them to make sure they're working correctly. I

[00:33:17] Eric Goranson: I just want to make sure it's working.

[00:33:32] Eric Goranson: Hairdryer on or something like that. It turns off, you know, why did that click off so easy? You know, that's usually because of that, it's worn out. It needs to be replaced. So that's a good one. Now here's a big one. And this is, we could do a whole show on this. And I think we have in the past inspect that crawlspace or basement look for rodent and past damage.

[00:34:03] Caroline Blazovsky: and just go down and like take a really deep dive and looking around. I mean, it's common sense, you know, if you see water leaking, if you start to see a lot of pests and, you know, spiders and lady bugs and silver fish, you've got a moisture problem.

[00:34:24] Eric Goranson: I was helping out a foundation company here. Because they were just behind on their, on their quotes and stuff. So I said, I'll go and help with you guys for a little bit, went and helped out these guys.

[00:34:56] Eric Goranson: So they were using 50 gallons of water per load, dropping it into [00:35:00] the crawl space. So it actually washed out the foundation wall on one side of the crawl space. And then it got bound up between the cabinets and the refrigerator in the wall. So it was actually pushing the cabinets off the wall. It was hundred grand worth of damage to fix that.

[00:35:40] Eric Goranson: They had just run hot laundry through and that water. So they were standing steaming water. And I mean, the crawlspace, it was brutal. And then the other one I had a lady had had a gurgling in her docks and the HPAC company says you gotta come out and see. Popped out there. And I popped the S the, the cover offer [00:36:00] ducting.

[00:36:09] Caroline Blazovsky: Legionella bacteria, guys. Just go down. Spaces and the attic too. You need to check it out when it's raining really hard, go up in your attic and make sure you don't have any leaks.

[00:36:26] Eric Goranson: at the same time, do that mold inspection around your house. Look in the basement, crawlspace addict spaces, closets bathrooms, and around those windows to make sure that nothing has grown and weird spots.

[00:36:46] Caroline Blazovsky: And I'm going to add one vacuum bags and filters. A lot of the vacuums have a six month HEPA filter that needs to be changed. So change out all those vacuums.

[00:37:05] Eric Goranson: sure it's all. Okay. Here's one for you, Caroline. When was the last time that you cleaned out your bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans?

[00:37:32] Eric Goranson: Curtis.

[00:37:47] Eric Goranson: Wipe the motor and stuff down on the inside and the fan and cleaning that out right there. Another one, another one on that list. Uh, we want to make sure and hit here is make sure the garage doors adjusted correctly. And when in doubt, have it serviced by a [00:38:00] pro. If you've got to have that work done on your spring

[00:38:04] Intro: Oh, yeah.

[00:38:34] Eric Goranson: Make sure you clean the filter on your front-load washing machines. Use the self-cleaning feature on your oven. If you have one and then check the water filter and vacuum the coils on the refrigerator. Sure all those things are dialed in and working well.

[00:38:54] Caroline Blazovsky: And it was all the washing machine. The dryer's really bad. It gets caked up past the past, the [00:39:00] filter all the way out into the, you know, you've got twists and turns in there where your lint gets stuck. So it really does pay to take that all apart and clean it.

[00:39:11] Eric Goranson: I hear the music playing in the background. It's that time? I'm Eric G and I'm Caroline. And you've been listening to around the