5 Fall Maintenance Tips for Townhouse and Condo Owners


Renovations / Thursday, September 13th, 2018

With fall being just around the corner, homeowners are prepping for the inevitable arrival of winter. When buying a semi-detached or detached home, it comes with a list of things that need to be accomplished every season.

To avoid this, people look to condos and townhouses for sale where most of the maintenance tasks are handled by the building staff. However, this doesn’t mean that owners of these types of homes are completely off the hook; There are still some things that they need to do to ensure that they are ready for the cold weather.

The following are five things that owners of condos and townhouses should do before winter.

1 – Deep Clean Your Kitchen

It goes without saying that the kitchen should be cleaned regularly, but it is especially important to do a deep cleaning during the fall; appliances can collect a lot of old food and grease, risking a higher chance of fire. First and foremost, you should clean the range hood; it accumulates grease throughout its use, severely reducing its efficiency in removing smoke. Once that is done, follow up by cleaning the stovetop, oven, and any other appliances that you may have in the kitchen. Having a clean kitchen goes a long way to ensuring that you can live comfortably in your home, especially during the months where you won’t be able to crack open a window while you are cooking. 

2 – Seal Up Gaps

Fall is a season that get colder as the months go by, meaning that small critters such as mice and insects will try to find a warmer place to stay, which in most cases ends up being your home. To prevent this, have a look around to see if you notice any gaps near doors or windows which could be an could be an entrance for critters to come in. If there are any gaps present, simply fill in with a caulking gun—which can be bought at any hardware store along with a tube a silicone. Filling up any drafty windows also helps keep your house nice and warm once the colder weather settles in and as an added bonus, caulking guns are very handy to have for any household repairs such as leaky pipes and sealing up bathtubs.

3 – Laundry Room Maintenance

While it is good practice to clean up the laundry room every couple of months, fall is a good time to do a more intricate cleaning of your washer and dryer. Over time, the washing machine accumulates a lot of soap scum which hardens and hinders the machine from operating efficiently. The same goes for the dryer machine where it is good practice to clean the lint trap, the dust vent, and the dryer drum on a yearly basis. Lint accumulates over time and becomes a dangerous fire risk if kept unchecked.

This is especially a concern with condos. Most condos in downtown Toronto come standard with a washer and dryer – usually found in a small closet. As such, there are actually two lint traps installed in your unit: one in your dryer and the other located in the ceiling of the laundry room or closet This means that owners will have to take extra care of keeping the two clean to minimize the risk of fire.

4 – Check Safety Devices

Household safety devices such as smoke and carbon monoxide detectors need to be tested at least once a month and require a yearly battery replacement. Moving into fall, batteries are usually changed in accordance to the end of daylight saving time just as a good measure to ensure that the devices are operating at all times.

During the fall, the colder and dryer air increases static electricity which can cause a fire when in contact with easily combustible materials such as dryer lint. Having a working smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector is important in the event that a fire does occur.

5 – Clean Out Your Storage Locker

 Similar to a detached homes outdoor shed, townhouses and condos normally have a storage locker that is usually found in the parking garage. Like the shed, it should be cleaned out or organized seasonally to reduce clutter and increase the amount of thing that can be put there. Unfortunately, parking garages are prone to floods that can end up ruining everything in a locker so make sure to check at least once a year that your spring and summer items kept in there are in good condition.

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