Trick or Treat? 3 Things Every Homeowner Should Do Before Winter

Halloween brings plenty of things that go bump in the night.

Your house shouldn't be one of them.

Before the pumpkins disappear and the Pacific Northwest settles into its wetter, colder months, here are three simple things worth checking around your home. Ignore them, and you may have a TRICK waiting for you. Take care of them now, and the TREAT is something much better than candy: peace of mind.

1. Water: Get It Away From the House

TRICK: Clogged gutters, blocked downspouts, and water collecting where it shouldn't.

Around here, water is relentless. A surprisingly large amount of rainwater can come off a roof, and poorly managed runoff can saturate soil around a foundation and contribute to moisture, mold, and rot problems. The U.S. Department of Energy recommends directing gutter and downspout water away from the foundation. [bsesc.energy.gov]

TREAT: Clean the gutters. Check downspouts. Walk around the house during a good rain and see where the water actually goes.

Sometimes five minutes standing outside with an umbrella can tell you more about your house than you'd expect.

2. Heat: Don't Wait Until You're Cold

TRICK: Discovering your furnace or heat pump has a problem on the first genuinely cold night of the year.

The Department of Energy recommends annual professional maintenance for furnaces and heat pumps, along with cleaning or replacing filters. A dirty or clogged HVAC filter can reduce airflow and increase system run time, wear and energy use. [energy.gov], [bsesc.energy.gov]

TREAT: Service the system, change the filter and make sure everything is working properly before you really need it.

Not glamorous.

Neither is waking up to a 54-degree house.

3. Safety: Test the Things You Hope Never Go Off

TRICK: Assuming your smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms work because they haven't made any noise.

NFPA recommends testing smoke alarms monthly. Its research also found the risk of dying in a reported home fire is about 60% lower in homes with working smoke alarms than in homes without them or where alarms failed to operate. [nfpa.org], [nfpa.org]

TREAT: Test the alarms. Check your CO detectors. And while you're at it, make sure the household knows where the flashlights are if the power goes out. Ready.gov specifically recommends testing smoke and CO alarms as part of preparing a home for winter weather. [ready.gov]

The Real Treat

Homeownership isn't always about the big projects.

Quite often, it's the small things caught early that prevent the expensive things later.

So before Halloween disappears for another year:

Water. Heat. Safety.

Three quick checks.

No surprises.

No nightmares.

Just a little more peace of mind heading into winter.

By: Ken Grant | Edmonds-area real estate Broker and community storyteller