Welcome back to part two of the “Fall Home Maintenance Checklist”. In this section we deal with the exterior of your home including paint, foundation, siding, the roof and your driveway and many more things to consider when preparing for the winter months ahead.
Fall Home Maintenance Checklist Edmonton – Part 2 Exterior
Let’s start with your driveway: Inspect the driveway for cracks. Clean and repair any damage with a specially designed driveway filler, once fixed be sure to coat with a driveway sealer. This will prevent moisture from entering and freezing causing the crack to be larger and more difficult to deal with in the future.
A great way to improve your energy efficiency, prevent leaks and avoid future costly bills is to inspect your exterior walls for any cracks. Caulk around the spaces where the foundation meets the siding of the home, where any pipes or wires are entering the house and around door frames and windows to prevent heat loss. This is one of the least expensive but most beneficial maintenance jobs the home owner can perform. Openings in structures allow water to seep in where it can freeze and cause cracks and allow molds to grow. The harsh winters of Edmonton can cause water and ice damage, a though check of the homes foundation combined with some inexpensive maintenance work can save large repair jobs in the future.
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Winters in Edmonton are long and cold, the season has already began and our furnaces have started up. You maybe smelled the foul order of dust burning on the furnaces heat exchanger, you also might have noticed an increase in the amount of dust on furniture in the home, some of your family members have started to sneeze more when in the house. All of these things can be related to your furnace filter being clogged with dirt.
It’s safe to say that mold is in our lives every day, especially airborne mold spores that are easily spread outside by wind or rain and indoors by our heating and ventilation systems. Indoor environments are at the disadvantage of not having a good air flow and UV from direct sunlight to combat the efforts of mold growth. Outside sunlight reacts with moisture in our air and releases ozone. If you want to combat mold indoors we have to create our own ozone in a safe environment.
A chimney inspection should be part of your fall home maintenance checklist, this is something that should be performed at least once per year just before the heating season. Not only can a thorough chimney inspection help prevent chimney fires but it can also discover birds nests or cracks in the chimney or other damage before it becomes a major problem.
Have a professional look at both the exterior of your chimney and the interior, the inspection will diagnose any problems or obstructions and recommend any repairs or cleaning before the heating season. If a chimney sweep is recommended it will be cleaned of any soot or creosote build-up that will help prevent chimney fires. 
Chimney cleaning is the job for a professional, maybe you have seen the movies “Mary Poppins” or “The Chimney Sweep and the Miller” and thought of romantic or the comedic side of chimney sweeping but this is a very series business that prevents house fires.
You can take care of the firebox quite easily using a wire brush and a shop vac but the job gets much more difficult when you have to start cleaning the chimney its self. You can purchase do it yourself brush kits from local Edmonton hardware stores that would have you climbing onto your roof and brushing the dust and creosote from the chimney walls but beware this is a very messy job and you must be prepared before starting. Make sure that you tarp off your fireplace so that all the dust created doesn’t venture into your home.