Spring Home Maintenance Checklist: What to Inspect After Winter

Winter does its damage quietly. Frost works into cracks, rain finds every weak joint, and wind loosens anything that was already marginal. By spring, your house has been through months of punishment and the evidence is there if you know where to look.

The problem is that most homeowners don't look until something fails visibly - a ceiling stain, a puddle in the hallway, a fence panel on the neighbour's lawn. By then, the repair bill has multiplied. A slipped tile that costs £50 to fix in March becomes a £2,000 damp remediation job by October.

In short: Walk the outside of your house in March or April with binoculars and a notepad. Check the roof, gutters, walls, DPC, windows, drainage, boundaries, and garden structures. Fix small problems now while they're cheap. This guide tells you exactly what to look for, what you can fix yourself, and when to call someone.

1. Roof inspection

You don't need to climb up there. Stand back from the house with a pair of binoculars and work methodically across the roof surface.

Look for missing or slipped tiles first - they're the most obvious and the most urgent. A single missing tile lets water straight into the felt or membrane beneath, and from there into your loft. Check the ridge tiles along the top of the roof. Traditional mortar bedding cracks over time, especially after frost cycles, and loose ridge tiles can shift or fall in the next storm.

Flashings are the lead or zinc strips that seal the joints around chimneys, vent pipes, and where the roof meets a wall. Look for flashings that have lifted, pulled away from the wall, or where the mortar pointing above them has cracked out. These are common leak sources that are easy to miss from the ground.

Inside the house, check upstairs ceilings for damp patches, discolouration, or peeling paint. These are often the first visible sign of a roof problem.

DIY or pro? You can spot the problems from the ground. Replacing a few slipped tiles on a single-storey extension is manageable if you're comfortable on a ladder. Anything that needs scaffolding or involves working at height on a main roof - call a roofer. Our guide to how to check roofing work covers what good repairs should look like, and roofer quote red flags will help you avoid the cowboys.

Typical cost: Replacing a few tiles runs £100-£300. Re-bedding ridge tiles is £300-£600. Flashing repairs are £150-£400. A full re-roof starts around £5,000-£10,000 depending on size and access.

2. Gutters and downpipes

Blocked gutters are one of the most common and most damaging maintenance failures. A gutter full of leaves and moss overflows during rain, sending water cascading down your walls instead of into the downpipe. Over months, this saturates brickwork, causes damp, stains render, and can even undermine foundations.

Walk around the house and look at the walls directly below the gutterline. Green algae staining or tide marks on the brickwork mean the gutter has been overflowing. Check the gutter joints - sagging or separated sections let water pour through. Look at where downpipes meet the ground: they should connect into a drain or shoe, not just discharge onto the soil next to your foundation.

During the next heavy rain, go outside and watch. Water should flow smoothly along the gutter and down the downpipes with no overflow, no dripping joints, and no pooling at the base.

DIY or pro? Clearing gutters on a single-storey property is a straightforward DIY job with a ladder and gloves. Two-storey gutters usually need a tower scaffold or a professional. Replacing a section of plastic guttering is easy and cheap.

Typical cost: Gutter clearing is £50-£150 for a professional. Replacing a section of plastic guttering is £5-£20 in materials. A full replacement system for a three-bed semi runs £400-£800 fitted.

3. External walls

Frost is the enemy of masonry. Water seeps into cracks in render, gaps in pointing (the mortar between bricks), and the face of soft bricks. When it freezes, it expands and breaks the material apart. This cycle repeats dozens of times over a British winter, and the results show up in spring.

Walk around the outside of the house and look for:

• Cracked or blown render - tap it gently. If it sounds hollow, the render has separated from the wall behind and needs cutting out and re-applying.
• Damaged pointing - mortar joints that are recessed, crumbling, or missing entirely. Water gets behind the brick face through failed pointing, accelerating freeze-thaw damage.
• Spalling bricks - where the face of the brick has flaked off, exposing the softer core. This is irreversible. Badly spalled bricks need cutting out and replacing.

For a deeper look at what you're checking, our guide to how to check brickwork quality covers mortar joints, wall ties, and what the regulations require.

DIY or pro? Repointing small areas is a satisfying weekend job if you can match the mortar colour and profile. Anything above ground-floor reach, or more than a few square metres, is better left to a bricklayer. Render repairs should always be done by someone who knows what they're doing - a bad patch is worse than leaving it alone.

Typical cost: Repointing costs £30-£60 per square metre. Render repairs start at £500 for a small area. Replacing spalled bricks is £10-£30 per brick plus labour.

4. DPC and damp defences

The damp proof course (DPC) is a waterproof barrier built into the base of your walls, usually about 150mm above ground level. Its job is to stop moisture from the ground wicking up into the brickwork. It only works if nothing bridges it.

Check these three things:

1. Ground level - has soil, gravel, or paving been built up above the DPC line? This is incredibly common after landscaping work and bypasses the DPC entirely. You need at least 150mm of clearance between the finished ground level and the DPC.
2. Air bricks - these ventilate the space under suspended timber floors. If they're blocked by soil, leaves, or render, moisture builds up underneath and timber starts to rot.
3. Bridging - anything that creates a path for moisture to cross the DPC. Render that continues below the DPC line, a patio slab leaning against the wall, or even a pile of firewood stacked against the house.

If you're not sure what a DPC should look like, that guide has photos and measurements. For a thorough check, see our full guide on how to check DPC and damp proofing.

DIY or pro? Clearing air bricks and lowering soil levels is pure DIY. If you suspect rising damp (tide marks on interior walls, salt deposits, peeling plaster at the base of walls), get a proper damp survey from an independent surveyor - not a damp proofing company who will always find a reason to sell you a new DPC.

Typical cost: Clearing air bricks is free. Lowering ground levels is a weekend's graft. A professional damp survey costs £200-£400. Damp proofing treatment (if genuinely needed) runs £2,000-£6,000 depending on the extent.

5. Windows and doors

Winter is hard on windows and doors. Timber frames expand and contract with temperature and moisture changes. Seals perish. Putty cracks. Hardware stiffens.

Work through each window and door systematically:

• Failed double glazing - condensation or fogging between the panes means the sealed unit has failed. The glass won't insulate properly and needs replacing. You can replace the sealed unit without replacing the whole frame.
• Timber frames - look for peeling paint, soft or spongy wood (prod with a screwdriver), and gaps where the frame meets the wall. Timber frames need regular painting to stay weatherproof. Once bare wood is exposed, rot follows quickly.
• Draughts - on a windy day, hold your hand around the edges of windows and doors. Noticeable draughts mean the seals or weatherstripping have failed.
• Cracked putty - on older windows, the putty (linseed oil compound) that holds the glass in the frame dries out and cracks over years. Missing putty lets water behind the glass and into the frame.

Our guide on how to check windows and doors covers the full picture, including what to look for if you're having new ones fitted.

DIY or pro? Replacing weatherstripping, repainting frames, and re-puttying old windows are all good DIY projects. Replacing sealed units or rehinging doors that have dropped is usually a job for a joiner or window fitter.

Typical cost: Weatherstripping is £5-£15 per door. A replacement sealed unit is £50-£150 per window. Repainting a full set of timber windows costs £500-£1,500 if you get someone in, or the price of a tin of paint and a few weekends if you do it yourself.

6. Paths, drives, and patios

Frost heave is the main culprit here. Water gets under slabs and tarmac, freezes, expands, and lifts the surface. In spring, you'll find slabs that have tilted or risen, cracks in tarmac, and areas where water pools instead of draining away.

Pooling water is the one to take seriously. If water sits on your patio or driveway for hours after rain, the drainage has failed. Over time, standing water finds its way into foundations and through airbricks.

Check that all hard surfaces slope away from the house - a fall of about 1:60 (roughly 17mm per metre) is the target. If your paving slopes toward the house, water is being directed exactly where you don't want it.

DIY or pro? Relevelling a few lifted slabs is a decent DIY job. Tarmac repairs need a professional. Drainage problems usually need someone who understands falls and soakaways.

Typical cost: Re-laying lifted slabs is £20-£50 per square metre. Tarmac patching starts at £200. Installing a new soakaway costs £500-£1,500.

7. Fences and boundaries

Fences take a battering every winter. Panels act like sails in high winds, and the posts - especially the bit below ground level - sit in wet soil for months on end.

Check each post at ground level by pushing it. If there's significant movement, the post has rotted at the base and needs replacing. Leaning panels usually mean the post has failed rather than the panel itself. Gravel boards (the horizontal board at the bottom of the fence) rot first because they're closest to the ground. They're designed to be sacrificial - replace them before rot spreads to the panels above.

DIY or pro? Replacing fence panels and gravel boards is a straightforward DIY job. Replacing concrete or timber posts is harder work, especially if you need to dig out old concrete footings.

Typical cost: A standard 6x6 fence panel is £25-£50. A timber post is £10-£20. A concrete post is £15-£30. Professional installation of a full fence run averages £80-£120 per panel (materials and labour).

8. Drainage

Slow drains and standing water in the garden after moderate rain are signs of drainage problems that may have worsened over winter. Tree roots grow into drain joints, silt builds up, and old clay pipes crack.

Run each tap and flush each toilet while someone watches the manhole. The water should appear quickly and flow freely. Slow or backed-up flow means a blockage or partial collapse.

In the garden, look for areas that stay wet long after rain has stopped. This might indicate a broken land drain or a high water table - neither of which fixes itself.

DIY or pro? You can clear simple blockages with drain rods. For persistent problems or suspected pipe damage, a CCTV drain survey (£150-£300) identifies the issue without digging anything up. Drain repairs are always a professional job.

Typical cost: Drain rod clearance is free if you own rods, or £80-£150 for a professional. A CCTV survey costs £150-£300. Drain repairs range from £200 for a simple patch to £2,000+ for a collapsed section.

9. Chimney

Chimneys are exposed to the worst of the weather and they're hard to inspect from ground level, so problems tend to accumulate. Use binoculars and check:

• Pointing - the mortar joints between chimney bricks deteriorate faster than the rest of the house because of their exposed position. Crumbling pointing lets water into the stack.
• Flaunching - this is the mortar bed that holds the chimney pots in place. Cracked flaunching lets water run down inside the flue, causing damp patches on chimney breast walls inside the house.
• Leaning - a chimney that's visibly leaning is a structural problem that needs urgent attention. Chimneys can and do collapse.

If you're no longer using the fireplace, check that the chimney is properly ventilated (a capped pot with ventilation, or an airbrick in the fireplace opening). A sealed chimney traps moisture and causes damp.

DIY or pro? Chimney work almost always needs a professional, simply because of the access issue. Even on a bungalow, you're working at the highest point of the roof. For a two-storey house, it means scaffolding.

Typical cost: Re-pointing a chimney stack costs £300-£800. Replacing flaunching is £150-£300. A leaning chimney that needs rebuilding from roof level up is £1,500-£4,000.

10. Garden structures

Sheds, greenhouses, pergolas, and decking all suffer in winter. Check:

• Shed roofs - lifted or torn felt is the most common problem. Water gets in, the timber frame gets damp, and the contents get ruined. Re-felting a shed roof is a quick job.
• Greenhouse glass - cracked panes let heat escape and rain in. Replace them before the growing season.
• Decking - push a screwdriver into the timber, especially where boards meet joists. If it sinks in easily, the wood is rotten. Also check that screws are tight and the structure is stable. Wobbly decking is a trip hazard.
• Pergolas and arches - check fixings and joints. Timber structures work loose over winter as the ground moves.

DIY or pro? Almost all garden structure maintenance is DIY territory. The exception is structural work on large decks or raised platforms, which may need building regulations approval if they're more than 300mm above ground level.

Typical cost: Shed re-felting is £20-£50 in materials. Greenhouse glass is £5-£15 per pane. Replacing rotten deck boards costs £5-£15 per board. A full deck replacement starts at £1,500.

The summary

Prioritise by risk

Not everything needs fixing immediately. Focus on the items that cause secondary damage if left:

1. Roof and gutters - water ingress damages ceilings, walls, timbers, and insulation. Fix these first.
2. DPC and damp - moisture in the structure leads to rot, mould, and expensive remediation.
3. Drainage - blocked or broken drains cause damp, subsidence, and can affect neighbours.
4. Walls and pointing - damaged masonry deteriorates faster with each freeze-thaw cycle. Catch it early.
5. Everything else - windows, fences, paths, and garden structures are important but less likely to cause catastrophic damage if left for a few weeks.

If you're getting quotes for any of these repairs, be wary of anyone who knocks on your door offering to fix your roof after "noticing damage from the road." That's a classic rogue builder tactic. Get at least three written quotes from established local tradespeople, and check them against what the work should actually cost. MyBuildAlly can help you spot overcharging, missing items, and scope gaps in repair quotes before you commit.

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Sources

• RICS Home Maintenance Guidance - Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors seasonal maintenance advice
• FMB Home Maintenance Checklist - Federation of Master Builders seasonal maintenance tips
• GOV.UK How to Look After Your Home - Government guidance on maintaining your property