Season‑by‑season home maintenance

Fall is the most important maintenance season in New England, because it is when you prepare for the hardest one. On the heating side, this is the time to service the boiler or heating system before it runs all winter, since a tune-up in October prevents most of the no-heat emergencies that come in January. On the plumbing side, fall is when you winterize: disconnect and drain garden hoses so the outdoor hose bibs do not freeze and split, and confirm that pipes in unheated or exterior spaces are protected before the first hard freeze.

It is also a sensible time to locate and test your main water shutoff while you are thinking about it, so you can stop the water fast if a winter pipe fails. The theme of fall is prevention: the small amount of work done now heads off the largest and most disruptive failures of the year. Our heating maintenance and plumbing tips pages cover the specifics.

Winter maintenance is mostly vigilance. During a deep cold snap, keep the heat on throughout the house, even in unused rooms, because an unheated space is where pipes freeze, and let a faucet on an exposed line drip slightly, since moving water resists freezing far better than still water. Never let the house go without heat in freezing weather, which is exactly why a no-heat call in a cold snap is a genuine emergency and not something to leave until morning.

Keep an eye on the heating system through the season, a boiler that starts making new noises, short-cycling, or struggling to keep up is telling you something, and catching it mid-winter beats a total failure on the coldest night. And make sure your carbon monoxide detectors are working, because winter is when the heat runs hardest and the house is sealed tight. If a pipe does freeze, our burst and frozen pipe page covers what to do.

Spring brings its own risk: water. As the snow melts and spring rains come, the ground saturates and the water table rises, and basements that stayed dry all winter can take on water. This is the season to make sure your sump pump actually works, before you need it, by pouring a bucket of water into the pit and confirming the pump kicks on and clears it. A pump that sat unused all winter can be seized or dead when the water finally comes, and finding that out during a storm is the worst version of it.

Spring is also a good time to look for anything winter may have damaged: check the outdoor hose bibs for a split that only shows when you turn the water back on, and watch for signs of a pipe that froze and cracked. Our sump pump page covers keeping a basement dry through the wet season, which in the lower-lying parts of Greater Boston is a real and recurring concern.

Summer is the easiest season on a home's plumbing and heating, which makes it the ideal time for the work you would rather not do under pressure. If your water heater, boiler, or heating system is aging and you know a replacement is coming, summer is the time to plan and do it calmly, rather than as an emergency when it fails in the cold. The same goes for a remodel, a fixture upgrade, or any project that touches the plumbing: warm weather and no heating demand make it the low-stress window.

It is also a good time to address the small things that have been nagging, the running toilet, the dripping faucet, the slow drain, before they get worse or get forgotten. And with the heat off, summer is when a thorough look at the heating system for a planned repair or replacement causes the least disruption. Whatever the season, when a job is past do-it-yourself, Prime Plumbing holds Massachusetts license #17347 and is a call away at (617) 354-4545.