Winter rain can put your home’s exterior to test, making early preparation a must to avoid facing costly repairs later. Before the rainy season arrives, it’s best to inspect the exterior of your home to spot problems and get them fixed in time. Don’t know where to start? This blog post will provide you with an exterior home inspection checklist to help you.
Why Does Winter Rain Preparation Matter?
Winter rain preparation can help you avoid a whole host of problems like:
1. Prevents water intrusion:
Cracks, gaps, damage to flashing, and clogged gutters can give rainwater opportunities to enter areas where it can cause damage. Advanced preparation can help you avoid that.
2. Reduces Risk of Exterior Damage
Prolonged exposure to moisture can contribute to deterioration of construction materials. However, with the right preparation, you can avoid or reduce this damage.
How to Prepare Your Home Exterior for Winter Rain?
With proper preparation, you can protect areas around roofs, windows, doors, and drainage systems from water-related issues.
How to Prepare Your Home Exterior for Winter Rain?
Let us now look at the exterior home maintenance checklist to follow before the winter rain.
1. Check and Clean Your Rain Gutters
Remove dirt, leaves, and waste from your gutters before the rainy season. Also check for loose fasteners, cracks, or separated joints that could affect drainage. Clear the downspouts and direct water away from the house. According to the Insurance Information Institute, cleaning gutters as part of home preparation can help avoid a whole host of problems. In case your house exterior needs any repair, it is a good idea to get it done before the rain arrives.
2. Inspect Your Siding Before the Rain
Walk around your home and look for cracked, warped, loose, or deteriorated siding. Do pay attention to seams, corners, and areas around windows and doors where water could potentially enter. Get damaged siding repaired before prolonged wet weather to avoid water seepage.
3. Examine Stucco for Signs of Damage
Stucco walls can develop physical cracks, holes, crumbling sections, or areas where the surface appears damaged over time. Pay close attention around windows, doors, corners, and other openings. Small defects can allow moisture to reach underlying materials, so addressing them early is worthwhile. If you find it difficult to examine these areas, you can contact a professional for evaluation, and they can spot the damage in time and prevent it from getting worse.
4. Check Your Fascia Boards
Fascia boards should be inspected for peeling paint, discoloration, soft spots, rot, and cracks. Since these boards are exposed to moisture from the roof and gutters, they are more vulnerable to damage.
5. Inspect Exterior Flashing
Visible flashing around roof edges, chimneys, vents, skylights, windows, and other openings should be inspected for obvious gaps, corrosion, lifting, or damage. Since the job of flashing is to direct water away from vulnerable joints, any kind of damage can create opportunities for water intrusion. According to the California Department of Insurance, rain entering through openings such as a damaged roof or broken windows is often the cause of water damage. That’s why it’s a good idea to always inspect the flashing before the winter rains.
6. Complete a Final Exterior Walkaround
After checking individual components, walk around the entire property once more. Look for loose materials, visible cracks, standing water, damaged sealants, or areas where rainwater could collect. A final review can help you catch problems missed during individual inspections. You can also use this step to prioritize repairs and decide which issues require professional attention before heavy rainfall.
7. Check Your Roof for Visible Damage
From the ground, look for missing, cracked, or damaged shingle lines. Thoroughly check the roof edges for visible deterioration. If you notice any, arrange for the appropriate exterior house repair before the rain. Usually, roofs can last for decades, which means roof replacement might not be required unless the roof is really old.
8. Inspect Doors and Windows for Water Entry Points
Any cracked caulking or damaged seal around doors and windows can create water entry points. It’s best to repair these before the rainy season.
9. Clear Debris Around Your Home
You also need to remove leaves, branches, dirt, and other debris from gutter box drains and areas around exterior walls to prevent water accumulation. Please do this regularly throughout the rainy season to maintain proper drainage and avoid water accumulation and seepage.
10. Check Your Exterior Drainage and Grading
Check the downspouts to ensure that they direct water away from your home, and also ensure there aren’t any spots that are ideal for water collection near the exterior walls of your home or near its foundation. You need to correct minor drainage issues wherever possible to avoid water accumulation.
When to Call a Handyman for Exterior Repairs?
In certain cases, it’s a better idea to call a handyman for exterior repairs rather than doing it yourself. These cases include:
1. Damage is Getting Worse or Spreading
If cracks, rot, loose materials, or exterior damage is worsening or spreading, don’t wait for rain to expose the problem further. It’s best to call a handyman as soon as possible in such a case, and have the affected area inspected and repaired.
2. You’re Seeing Signs of Water Intrusion
Water stains, damp areas, peeling paint, or moisture around the windows and exterior walls can indicate water intrusion. Address these warning signs as soon as possible and have a professional identify the source and repair them.
3. Exterior Damage is Affecting Your Home’s Protection From the Elements
Any damage to siding, stucco, fascia, or other exterior components reduces their ability to protect your home effectively. In such a case, it’s best to get them repaired before the rainy season to avoid further water damage and seepage.
FAQs
How Often Should I Clean My Rain Gutters Before the Rainy Season?
It’s best to clean your rain gutters at least twice a year, ideally before the rainy season and after the leaves have fallen. Homes surrounded by trees need more frequent cleaning to prevent clogs and overflow.
Where Should I Check for Damaged or Missing Flashing?
Ideally, you should check flashing where roof planes meet, that is, around chimneys, vent pipes, skylights, and where windows and doors meet exterior walls. Do inspect corners, seams, and joints for gaps, rust, lifting, or missing sections as well.
How Can I Tell if My Stucco Needs Repair Before It Rains?
Signs like cracks, holes, crumbling areas, discoloration, or bulging indicate your stucco might need repair. It’s best to get these issues repaired before rain to avoid worsening any existing problem.
Final Thoughts
If you want to protect the exterior of your home from the winter rain, which is likely to be especially harsh this year because of El Niño, it’s best to follow the checklist that we have given above. Once you inspect your home accordingly and spot the problems, it’s best to call a professional handyman to fix the issues for you before heavy rain. Need help fixing your home’s exterior? Drop us a line today, and one of our professionals will inspect it for you.
