Spring opening package

Spring home maintenance in one visit, scheduled for the week the ground thaws rather than the week you finally get to it. Gutters cleared of a winter of debris, screens and storm doors hung, exterior caulk renewed where the freeze opened it, hose bibbs checked for splits and the deck looked over properly before anybody sits on it.

A Michigan winter works on a house in a way that is invisible until April. Water gets into a joint at 40 degrees, freezes at 25, opens the joint a fraction and takes on more the following week. Repeat that 30 times and the hairline gap in last year’s caulk is now a path into the sheathing. This visit finds those before the spring rain uses them.

What the visit covers

• Gutters and downspouts cleared, with the discharge checked where it lands
• Window screens and storm door inserts hung, with torn screens noted
• Exterior caulk renewed at trim, penetrations and any joint that opened
• Hose bibbs opened and pressure tested for splits from the freeze
• A deck and porch walk covering structure, rails, fasteners and surface

Everything here is ordinary work and all of it is easier before the yard grows in. Ladders sit better on firm ground, gutters are reachable before the trees leaf out, and a deck is easier to assess when it is not covered in furniture.

The hose bibb test that matters

A frost free sill cock that froze over winter often looks perfectly fine. The split is inside the wall, and nothing happens until the valve is opened under pressure, at which point water runs into the wall cavity rather than out of the spout. Homeowners discover this by watching a ceiling stain appear while the sprinkler runs.

We open each one with somebody inside watching the interior side of the wall. It takes two minutes and it is the difference between a valve replacement and a drywall repair with a plumbing repair behind it. Where a split is found, replacement is straightforward fixture level work.

Gutters, and what the debris tells us

Beyond clearing them, we look at what comes out. Shingle granules in quantity mean the roof surface above is wearing, which is worth knowing early rather than discovering in a storm. Standing water means a pitch problem rather than a debris problem, and that wants correcting or the gutter will keep failing at the same point.

Downspout discharge is the other half. A downspout ending at the foundation puts a roof’s worth of water directly against the wall during exactly the season when the ground is already saturated. Extending them is small work with an outsized effect, and it is the first thing we recommend to anyone with a damp basement complaint.

Winter damage, and where to look for it

Ice dams leave evidence even after the ice is gone. A stain at the top of an interior wall, lifted shingles at the eave, a gutter pulled out of line, or paint blistering on a soffit. Where we find that pattern, the cause is warm air leaking into the attic rather than a gutter problem, and the lasting fix is air sealing.

Foundation and grade come next. Frost heave moves soil, settles walkways and opens gaps at the foundation that were not there in October. Correcting grade in spring, while the ground is workable and before the summer storms, is the right season for it. The winter context is covered in our notes on Michigan basements through winter.

Sump pumps get tested under real water at the same visit, because spring melt is the hardest work a pump does all year. Where a system is questionable, the full treatment sits in the water damage prevention package.

The deck, before the first warm weekend

Decks are structures, and they age from the connections outward. We look at the ledger where it meets the house, the post bases where they meet the ground, the rail posts where they take lateral load, and the fasteners that have backed out over a winter of expansion. A rail that moves under a hand is the one item that is genuinely urgent.

Surface condition is a separate question. Grey timber is not failure, it is weathering, and a sound deck can be cleaned and coated to look years younger. That work sits in deck staining and maintenance, and spring into early summer is the right window for it in this climate.

Where a deck is genuinely finished, rebuilding is real work with permits and footings behind it, handled by our deck construction crews. Owners weighing materials before committing find the composite against wood comparison useful, since the maintenance difference over ten Michigan winters is substantial.

Screens, storms and the shoulder season

Screens are a small job that nobody enjoys, particularly on a second storey. We hang what you have, note anything torn or bent, and rescreen frames where it is worth doing rather than replacing them. Storm door inserts get swapped at the same time and the closer gets adjusted so the door stops slamming.

Windows that would not open last summer usually will not open this one either, and the cause is nearly always hardware or paint rather than the unit. Sash balances, tracks and stops are fixable. Where a unit has genuinely failed, that is window replacement and gets quoted on a project timeline instead.

Three season rooms come back into use around now, and they are worth a look before the furniture goes back in. A porch that has been closed all winter often shows moisture at the sill or insects where a screen has failed. Whether the room could be used year round is a different conversation, covered under four season room conversion.

Exterior caulk, and the elevations that fail first

South and west elevations take the sun and fail years before the north side does. That is where we look first, at window and door trim, at penetrations for hose bibbs, dryer vents and service entries, and where siding meets brick, trim or another material.

Failed sealant gets cut out rather than covered, because a bead run over cracked material fails again in one season. Spring temperatures are right for this work in a way that November temperatures are not, which is the practical reason it belongs in this package rather than the fall one.

Salt, concrete and the walk to your front door

Road salt and freeze cycles work on concrete the same way they work on cars. Spalling at the surface of a walkway, a step that has settled away from the porch, and a driveway edge that has crumbled are all standard spring findings here, and all of them are trip hazards before they are cosmetic problems.

We note condition and flag anything that has moved since last year. A step that has dropped a half inch is a maintenance item. A step that has dropped two inches is telling you something about what is under it, and that is worth investigating before somebody puts a new tread on top and calls it fixed.

Handrails get checked at the same time, since a rail anchored into spalled concrete is anchored into nothing. That is quick to correct while a crew is on site, and it is the kind of item that sits unaddressed for years because nobody wants to make a small call about it.

Getting the inside ready too

Spring is when a house gets opened up, and two indoor items belong in the same week. Bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans want checking, because a fan that has stopped moving air leaves rooms damp through a humid Michigan summer. Detectors want their dates read, since batteries fail quietly over a winter of closed windows.

Where the whole house needs that sweep rather than a spot check, it is handled under the fire and carbon monoxide package with a written placement record. It is one of the few items that is genuinely better done annually than reactively.

Owners planning a summer project use this visit as a starting point, since the exterior findings often decide the order of work. There is little sense putting money into a deck surface the same year the ledger needs rebuilding, and a spring walk is where that gets caught.

What we will not do

We do not walk roofs on this visit, and we do not offer a roof condition verdict from the ground beyond describing what is visible. We do not service air conditioning, which is a mechanical trade and worth booking separately before the first hot week. And we do not perform pressure washing on surfaces where it does more harm than good, older wood and soft mortar in particular.

Where something falls outside what we take on, we say which trade to call rather than attempting it. That is the same policy across every package we run, and it is the reason the written note at the end of a visit is worth reading rather than filing.

Where this sits against the other visits

This package is the outward half of the year. Its opposite number is fall winterization, which closes the same items down before the freeze. Clients who run both are looking at the exterior of their house twice a year, which is roughly the right frequency in this climate.

Owners who want the whole building assessed rather than the seasonal items alone usually add the annual home check visit, which produces a written report covering the interior, the basement and the major components with their ages.

Houses that stood empty over winter need the opening done carefully rather than quickly, especially the water system. That is built into the vacant home service, where the final visit of the season is the one that brings the house back into use.

Attics, vents and the summer problem

Everyone thinks about attics in winter and almost nobody thinks about them in July, when the space above a Michigan ceiling can sit at 140 degrees. Blocked soffit vents, insulation pushed into the eaves and a bathroom fan discharging into the attic all show up the same way, as a second floor that will not cool down and a roof deck aging faster than it should.

We look where access allows and report what we see, including any evidence of winter condensation on the underside of the sheathing. That is the clearest sign that warm house air is getting up there, which is an air sealing problem rather than a ventilation one. The background is set out in our attic insulation guide.

Correcting it is spring and summer work while the attic is workable, and doing it before adding insulation is the order that matters. Sealing after the fact means moving everything that was just installed, which is how a straightforward job becomes an expensive one.

Where the space is being converted rather than maintained, that is a different project entirely, with headroom, framing and egress questions behind it. Those conversations belong on a project timeline rather than a maintenance visit, and they are better started in spring than in August.

Timing and the towns we run it in

Late March through May is the window, and the earlier half is better. Gutters full of last autumn’s leaves want clearing before the spring rain rather than after, and a deck assessed in March can be coated in May. By June the calendar has filled with people who waited for a warm weekend to think about it.

Older neighborhoods in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti have mature trees, which means gutters matter more and shade keeps surfaces damp longer. Newer subdivisions around Canton and South Lyon tend to produce grading and deck fastener items instead. The towns we cover sit on our service area page.

What to have ready

• Screens and storm inserts gathered in one place if they were stored
• Access around the full perimeter, including gates and side yards
• Deck furniture moved off, or moved to one end so we can see the boards
• A note of any leak, stain or drip that appeared over winter
• Somebody available for ten minutes when we test the hose bibbs

That last one takes a person standing inside while the water runs, which is why it is on the list. It is the only item in the package that genuinely needs two people, and it is the one most likely to find something expensive early.

Booking it

Spring work books up quickly once the weather turns, so the useful move is to set the date in February. The visit runs on the repairs and service side of the company, which keeps its own calendar, and anything that turns into a project moves onto our normal project process.

Work carries the coverage in our workmanship warranty, and materials carry their own manufacturer terms. To see what the same crews build across the region, View our Portfolio. To get the house opened up properly this year, contact us now for a free quote, or book a consultation if the deck is the real question.