Iowa winters are hard on a house. The homeowners who avoid expensive surprises in February are almost always the ones who spent an afternoon in October checking these items.
Outside the house
- Clean gutters and downspouts. Clogged gutters in winter mean ice dams, and ice dams mean water finding its way somewhere it shouldn’t.
- Check caulking around windows and doors. Gaps here are one of the biggest sources of winter heat loss — and one of the cheapest fixes if caught early.
- Inspect the roof for loose or damaged shingles before the first heavy snow puts weight and ice on top of a problem you didn’t know you had.
- Drain and store outdoor hoses, and shut off exterior spigots if your home has a separate shutoff — a frozen and burst hose bib is a common, avoidable repair.
Inside the house
- Have the furnace serviced before you need it running every day. A fall tune-up is far cheaper than an emergency call in January.
- Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and replace batteries — CO risk goes up as furnaces and fireplaces get used more.
- Check attic insulation levels. Thin or settled insulation is one of the most common reasons heating bills spike every winter.
- Reverse ceiling fans to clockwise rotation to push warm air back down from the ceiling.
Easy to forget, expensive to skip
- Chimney inspection, if you have a working fireplace or wood stove.
- Sump pump check, especially with a battery backup test — a power outage during a winter storm is exactly when you don’t want to find out it’s not working.
- Sealing driveway or walkway cracks before freeze-thaw cycles make them worse.
Doing this every season, without the mental overhead
Most of this is manageable in a weekend if you know what to look for — and that’s exactly where our DIY Coaching program can help if anything on this list turns up a bigger issue than expected.
If you’d rather not track this yourself every year, Soap Stone Home Care handles seasonal maintenance on a set schedule, so these items get checked before they become a problem — not after.
