At Home Living: A fall maintenance checklist

Here are a few guidelines for preparing a house and yard for Winter. More detailed lists of what to inspect before snow and ice arrive can be found online or by consulting home stores in the region.

Roof With binoculars or a good zoom lens, look for damaged, worn or loose shingles, gaps in flashing, or damaged mortar or flashing around the chimney. Check the seals on roof vents and install a chimney cap to reduce fire hazards. Re-secure antennas and satellite dishes, if the hardware is loose.

Heating/Cooling System Change out furnace filters, clean and vacuum ducts, vents, baseboard heaters and cold-air returns to reduce winter illnesses. The National Association of Home Builders, NAHB, recommends maintaining your furnace, fireplace, boiler, water heater, space heater and wood-burning stove by having your heating system serviced every year by a certified technician, (see: http://www.acca.org). And while youre at it, check smoke and fire alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, update batteries and change heating and air conditioning filters regularly.

Consider having a low or no-cost, programmable thermostat installed. Set it at 70 degrees Fahrenheit when youre home and awake and at 62 degrees or less when youre away or asleep to help achieve maximum energy savings.

Remove window air conditioners or cover them to reduce drafts and heat loss.

Fireplace Make sure the flue, damper and chimney are in good repair and functioning properly. Have the fireplace cleaned to remove animal debris and bird nests. This is the time to order firewood, if you have a wood stove or fireplace, but remember not to stack it against the house. If your fireplace is gas and not wood, make sure the inset is working correctly.

Wood work Inspect for wood rot, termites, trapped moisture, wear or peeling paint and missing trim.

Pipes & Plumbing Shut off exterior faucets at the indoor shutoff valve and use insulating tape to wrap pipes in rooms without wall insulation.

Doors & Windows Change out screendoors for glass or solid storm doors and weatherstrip doors and windows. Kiplingers maintenance advice is to caulk or weatherstrip around windows or doors where daylight of more than a nickels width is visible. To reduce unwanted rodent traffic, install doorsweeps at the base of exterior doors. When weatherizing isnt practical--on an interior doorbuy or sew a draft dodger to stop air flow across the threshold.

Foundation Inspect foundation materials for moisture resistance, look for worn areas or shifts in alignment on supporting beams or posts, note any changes from the previous year that may require closer scrutiny from a carpenter, mason or engineer.

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At Home Living: A fall maintenance checklist