Fall home maintenance checklist: 14 jobs, ordered by what fails first in winter

A fall home maintenance checklist should cover four things in this order: heating, outdoor water, the roof and gutters, and the alarms. The table below lists 14 jobs by priority, with the reason for each and the repeat interval Maintainly’s task library uses. Do the first six before the first frost; the rest can follow.

The order is by consequence. A job near the top leaves you without heat or with a split pipe if it is missed. A job near the bottom costs some comfort or a higher bill. Skip any row that does not apply to your home: no irrigation system, no pool, no chimney, no forced-air furnace.

The intervals are the defaults in Maintainly’s task library, which you can browse in the home maintenance guides. Where a named body recommends something different, the sections below say so.

Heating comes first because it is the one system you cannot do without in a cold snap, and it has sat unused for months. Run it on a mild day, change the filter, and book the yearly service. ENERGY STAR advises a contractor check-up of the heating system each fall.

The ENERGY STAR heating and cooling maintenance checklist recommends annual pre-season check-ups by a contractor, with the heating system checked in the fall. It also says to inspect, clean or change air filters once a month. Maintainly’s task library defaults to a filter change every 2 months, inside a 1 to 3 month range, so move the interval down if your filter is dirty at each check.

The safety case is separate from the comfort case. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) carbon monoxide guidance says to have your heating system, water heater and any other gas, oil or coal burning appliance serviced by a qualified technician every year. The CDC puts unintentional carbon monoxide deaths not linked to fires at more than 400 Americans a year.

Fire is the other reason. The US Fire Administration’s report on residential heating fires estimates an average of 34,200 heating fires in US residential buildings each year from 2017 to 2019, with incidence peaking in January at 20%.

1. Test the heating before the season: turn it on while you are home and can hear it start, run and shut off.
2. Replace or clean the filter in a forced-air system, and write the size down so the next one is easy to buy.
3. Book the yearly furnace or boiler service with a qualified technician. Gas work is a job for a licensed professional in all four countries covered here.
4. Heat pump homes: clear leaves and debris from around the outdoor unit so air can move through it.

Disconnect every hose, close the indoor valve that feeds each outdoor tap if you have one, and open the tap so the pipe drains. Do it before the first hard frost. Irrigation lines and pools need their own winterizing in climates that freeze, and none of this applies where it never does.

A hose left connected keeps water in the tap, and the pipe behind that tap usually runs through the wall. The Insurance Information Institute’s cold weather advice tells homeowners to make sure all hoses are disconnected from outside spigots. The same page says to keep the house heated to a minimum of 65 degrees Fahrenheit, because a lower setting will not keep the inside of the walls from freezing.

In the UK the weak points are different. The Met Office guide to getting a home winter ready says to make sure water pipes and tanks in the loft are insulated with good quality lagging.

How far to take this depends on how cold your winters get. The companion post on how to winterize your home by climate sorts the jobs by climate.

1. Disconnect, drain and store every garden hose.
2. Close the indoor shut-off valve for each outdoor tap, if your home has them, then open the outdoor tap and leave it to drain. The guide to winterizing outdoor taps covers the variations.
3. Have the irrigation system winterized if you live where the ground freezes. Many owners hire a contractor for this.
4. Close the pool by the manufacturer’s procedure before the first frost.
5. Find the main water shut-off and check that it turns, so you can stop the water quickly if a pipe does split.

Clean gutters once most of the leaves are down, so one clean lasts the winter, and look over the roof from the ground at the same time. Clear gutters let meltwater drain. They do not stop ice dams by themselves: ENERGY STAR points to attic air sealing and insulation for that.

Timing matters more than the calendar date. Cleaning before the trees have dropped means doing it twice. The Insurance Information Institute advises keeping gutters free of leaves and debris so melting snow and ice can flow freely, and watching for ice dams near gutter downspouts.

An ice dam is a ridge of ice at the roof edge that holds meltwater back until it finds a way under the roofing. The ENERGY STAR attic air sealing guide says that air sealing, combined with attic insulation, can help to alleviate ice dams. If your home gets them most winters, ask an insulation contractor about the attic as well as keeping the gutters clear.

For the roof, a look from the ground is enough for most owners. Note anything missing, lifted or cracked and call a roofer for it. Working on a roof is a fall risk and is better left to a professional.

• Clean the gutters after leaf fall and run water through the downspouts to check they are clear.
• Inspect the roof from the ground: missing or lifted shingles, slipped tiles or slates, and damaged flashing around the chimney and vents.
• Have the chimney swept and inspected before the first fire if you burn wood. The CDC says to have your chimney checked or cleaned every year.

Test every smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, replace replaceable batteries, and read the date on each unit. The US Fire Administration says to test smoke alarms monthly and to replace most units every 10 years. Clean the dryer vent duct in the same session, and check the fire extinguisher gauge.

The US Fire Administration’s smoke alarm guidance says to test alarms monthly. Alarms with a 9-volt battery, and hardwired alarms with a backup battery, need the battery replaced at least once a year and the whole alarm replaced every 10 years. Alarms with a sealed 10-year battery are replaced as a unit, following the manufacturer’s instructions.

For carbon monoxide, the CDC says to check detector batteries when you change the clocks each spring and fall, and to replace the detector following the manufacturer’s instructions or every 5 years. Maintainly’s task library uses the same 5 years as its default for replacing a CO alarm. The date printed on your unit and its manual come first.

The US Fire Administration’s appliance fire safety page reports that failure to clean was the leading factor in the ignition of home clothes dryer fires from 2018 to 2020, at 31%. A yearly clean of the vent duct is the task that addresses it. The post on home maintenance tasks that are really about safety covers the rest of this group.

• Test CO alarms and replace the batteries, then read the manufacture or replace-by date on each unit.
• Test smoke alarms and replace the batteries, or the whole unit if it is past its date.
• Clean the dryer vent duct from the dryer to the outside wall.
• Check that the fire extinguisher gauge is in the green and the pin is in place.

Sealing draughts, checking for damp and bleeding radiators can wait until the freeze and fire jobs are done. They affect comfort and running costs, not whether a pipe bursts. Sealing gaps around windows and doors is the one to do first, because it works all winter once done.

Check each window and door for a draught you can feel or daylight you can see, and re-caulk or replace the weatherstrip where the seal has failed. Maintainly’s task library sets this as a yearly fall job.

In homes with radiators, bleed any radiator that is hot at the bottom and cool at the top. In any home, look at the cold corners, window frames and the walls behind large furniture for damp or mould as the windows start staying shut. The library repeats that check every 6 months.

Start the heating test and book the service in early fall, do the outdoor water jobs before your area’s first hard frost, and clean gutters after leaf fall. In the US, UK and Canada that spans September to November. In Australia the same jobs fall in March to May.

Splitting the list into three sessions works better than one long weekend, because the jobs do not all come due at once. The gutters are not ready when the heating test is, and the service visit depends on the technician’s calendar.

Some of the list is not DIY work. Gas appliance servicing belongs to a qualified, licensed technician, and roof repairs and chimney sweeping are normally hired out. Check what your own country or state requires before booking.

1. Early fall: test the heating, change the filter, book the furnace or boiler service and the chimney sweep.
2. Before the first hard frost: hoses, outdoor taps, irrigation and pool.
3. After leaf fall: gutters, downspouts and the roof check from the ground.
4. Any time in the season: alarms, dryer vent, fire extinguisher, window and door seals, damp check.