10 Maintenance Jobs Worth Doing Before Winter

Almost every expensive repair we are called to in July started as something small and cheap in March. Water is patient — it finds the one unsealed joint, the one blocked outlet, the one lifted tile, and it works on it all winter while nobody is looking.

None of the following takes long. All of them are cheaper than what happens if they are skipped.

1. Clear the gutters and downpipes

A blocked gutter overflows behind the fascia rather than in front of it, which means the damage happens to the timber you cannot see. Clear the leaves, flush the downpipes, and check the water actually gets to the ground.

2. Check the roof for lifted or cracked material

You are looking for slipped tiles, lifted sheet edges, rusted fixings and anything sitting proud of the line. From the ground with binoculars is fine — nobody needs to be on a wet roof to spot the obvious.

3. Look at the flashings

Most roof leaks start at a junction, not in the middle of a sheet. Chimneys, skylights, vents, valleys and the joint where a roof meets a wall are where to look first.

4. Treat moss and lichen

Moss holds water against the roof surface and slowly lifts tiles as it grows. Treating it is inexpensive and adds years to the roof; leaving it does the opposite.

5. Reseal the shower

Silicone around a shower tray has a life of a few years, and grout cracks as a building moves. Both are a morning’s work. A shower leaking into the floor for a winter is a bathroom rebuild.

6. Check the extractor fans actually vent outside

A fan venting into the roof space is worse than no fan at all — it moves the moisture from a room you use into a cavity you never see. For rental properties, venting outdoors is a Healthy Homes requirement, not a nice-to-have.

7. Clear the subfloor vents

Garden beds, stacked firewood and new paths block subfloor ventilation surprisingly often. A damp subfloor shows up as cold floors, musty smells and, eventually, borer and rot.

8. Walk the drainage

Find where the stormwater goes. Check the gully traps are clear and above ground level, look for pooling against the foundation, and make sure a new deck or driveway has not redirected water towards the house.

9. Check exterior joinery and seals

Perished seals around windows and doors let in both water and heat. Run a finger along the rubber, look for gaps at the head flashing, and check that the drainage slots at the bottom of aluminium joinery are not painted over or blocked.

10. Look at the deck and the fence before the wind does

Push the handrail. Check the posts at ground level where rot starts. A loose baluster in March is a repair; the same baluster in a August storm is a liability.

If you would rather not go up the ladder

All of the above is work we do every week across Auckland, usually as one visit rather than ten separate call-outs. We will give you a written condition report with photographs, tell you what genuinely needs doing now, and be honest about what can wait another year.