5 Things To Check Outside Of Your Home This Spring

Spring is here, or near depending where you live, so now that the snow is gone you should have a look outside your house to find those things that may need to be addressed.

Walk around your home and look up at the roof to check your shingles. Can you see any damaged shingles? . With high wind and loose shingles you can get the odd shingle flipped over and torn off. Walk across the street and look at your roof from a distance. A missing shingle will be pretty obvious. A few shingles can be replaced easily by a knowledgeable handyman, or if your shingles are old call a roofing company to do temporary repair and give you a quote on replacing the shingles.

3 or 4 Missing Shingles

1 Missing Shingle

2. While looking up, walk around your house and look at the gutters and soffits. Have the soffits come loose or been damaged by pests? Raccoons, squirrels and birds can damage the thin aluminum soffits and get access to your attic to nest. Look for a gap between the gutter and the roof sheathing, squirrels can get in there too.

Blackbirds have pulled loose this soffit

3. While looking at exterior walls, check all your exhaust vent hoods. Do they all have there flaps and/or screens? If they’re missing get them repaired, it’s spring and birds will be in them nesting soon.

Example of side of house with missing vent flaps

2 Vents Missing Flaps

An example of a vent with the screened chewed by an animal

Under Flaps the Screen has been chewed (skedaddlewildlife.com)

4. Roof vents are access points for squirrels too! I have seen some myself. If you are okay with heights and know how to climb a ladder to safely reach the peak of your roof have a look for damaged vents. If not, just hire a professional.

Example of water against the house foundation

This poor drainage can cause …

Example of water damage on a basement cement wall

…this basement moisture

5. Is there any standing water around your house? Check for saturated soft soaked ground and standing water. If the ground is still partly frozen (end of April – early May), surface water can not easily soak through the soil so if you find saturated, soft, soaking ground this means there is poor drainage and surface grading. This surface water may work its way against your basement wall, into your sump pit and/or into your basement. If you can not solve this issue yourself then hire a professional landscaping company. Better to take preventative action rather than having to deal with the possible result.