Winter is hard on a house. Freeze and thaw cycles pry gaps open, wind lifts shingles, and road salt works its way into every threshold from Oakville out to Hamilton and Brampton. Spring is the cheapest month to catch all of it. Most of what we find in April is a twenty minute fix. Left alone until October, the same thing becomes a rebuild.
Start outside. Clear the gutters. Check that each downspout pushes water at least a metre away from the foundation, because a blocked one quietly soaks the wall it sits against for months. Then walk the perimeter and look for ground sloping back toward the house.
Openings come next. Recaulk around windows and exterior door frames wherever the bead has cracked or pulled away, and press a thumb into the weatherstripping to feel for flat spots. A door that whistles in February is usually a five dollar seal. Not a new door.
Inside, the list is short. Test every smoke and carbon monoxide detector. Run water in the drains you rarely use so the traps do not dry out. Take a flashlight under each sink and look for that faint white crust, the one that means a slow leak has been going for a while.
If all of this feels like a lot, it is, and that is normal. We book spring maintenance as one half day visit and work straight down the list in a single trip. It costs less than calling us six separate times across the year.