Every year about this time, Vincent DiYenno of Portland Handyman Services starts hearing from people who have spent the cold winter months analyzing what’s wrong with their houses.
“People start to make lists when they have cabin fever,” he said.
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On the top of that spring to-do list for a lot of people are projects to increase pantry storage or remodel a mudroom.
“Right now, everyone has a hat rack or a wall of coat hooks that is just bursting,” DiYenno said, “and they think, ‘You know what? I don’t want to do this next year. I don’t want to do this anymore.’ “
Good weather for remodeling and home maintenance is in short supply in Maine, so when March rolls around, people start thinking about getting started on these spring home improvement projects.
Some home maintenance work is best done at this time of year, according to Marv Goldstein, president of the American Society of Home Inspectors.
“There are things that should be done periodically, but people will sometimes forget,” he said. “Spring is a good time to pay attention to them — simple things that can cause you higher energy bills and even house fires.”
Now is a good time to think about cleaning the dryer vent, for example, as well as filters on your home’s hot air system return or air conditioning return system. Clogged filters can lead to high electric bills and house fires.
Daylight Savings Time begins today, which means it’s time to change the batteries in smoke detectors.
It’s also a good time to make sure your home’s gutters and downspouts are clear. Branches and twigs that were blown down during winter storms and leaves that didn’t get raked up last fall may have gotten trapped there.
“Spring is a great time to make sure water isn’t collecting at the exterior walls of your house, making sure that your soil is graded away from your house,” Goldstein said.
This can especially be a problem as the ground settles around homes built during the past five to 10 years. The soil can become supersaturated with water in spring, and if that water is directed toward the foundation, you’ll end up with water in the basement. In more severe cases, a home-owner might have to install a perimeter drain system that can cost as much as $10,000 to $15,000, Goldstein said.
If you’re thinking of planting trees and shrubs this spring, Goldstein added, don’t plant them immediately adjacent to the house, “which will serve as a root system for water to be brought toward your house and roots to grow along the foundation wall.”
Planting trees away from the house will also help keep insects away.
“You shouldn’t have a tree growing so close to your house that the branches overhang your house,” Goldstein said, “because that’s a path for carpenter ants and termites and other insects to just walk up the tree, walk across the branch, jump on your roof and chew on your roof rafters.”
If you’re planting flower beds next to the house, don’t put a wall around them so that any water that comes down the exterior wall of your house gets trapped in between the wall and the home’s foundation. That can also lead to water in the basement.
In the same vein, DiYenno suggests watching the way water moves against your house in spring so that you can avoid other maintenance issues in the future. Is there a leaky gutter right above your front porch? Is there water that runs down the side of your house and makes the paint peel?
DiYenno says a simple walk-around survey of a home can uncover issues you may not have noticed in winter. Has trim pulled away from the house, offering water an opportunity to infiltrate where it shouldn’t?
“The winter really tests your house, so there are going to be things that break, like a storm door that got blown by the wind and now needs to be put back on,” DiYenno said.
Some of these issues can fall into the categories of safety, energy efficiency and comfort. Check to be sure the porch steps are still safe. Can someone get out of the house easily in case of a fire?
As far as energy efficiency and comfort are concerned, DiYenno suggests thinking about all the things that bothered you about your house over the winter. When you sat on the couch, did you feel a cold draft from a leaky old window?
After all of these issues are taken care of, it’s time to think about wants. Maybe you’d like a second bathroom or a renovated kitchen. Make a list and prioritize it. Chances are, you won’t be able to do everything this year, so pick the top three more important projects.
DiYenno’s final word of advice is not to wait until the first really warm day of spring to start calling around getting estimates from handymen and contractors for the work that you want to have done, whether it’s a siding project or new windows. Projects tend to take longer than people expect.
If you’re redoing your kitchen, he said, it can take a week or two to pick out new kitchen cabinets and get the approval of your spouse. Delivery of the cabinets may take another three to four weeks.
“Even before any work is done, you have a six-week lag time from when you first started to (say), ‘Hey, I think we should do our kitchen’ to when your cabinets can even arrive,” he said.
Or suppose you’re planning to have a new deck built this year.
“There’s lots of choices you can make before you start swinging a hammer,” DiYenno said. “Are you going to have composite decking? How big is it going to be? You’re going to need a permit. Especially in Portland, that permitting process can take weeks sometimes. You don’t think it should, but it does.
“That’s the kind of stuff, if you start early enough, then when the weather really breaks, you can just start. But if you don’t start thinking about your deck until May or June, then all the contractors are really busy, and the permit office gets even busier.”
Staff Writer Meredith Goad can be contacted at 791-6332 or at:
mgoad@pressherald.com
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