Seasonal Check Planning Checklist

List the parts of this property that behave differently at different points in the year, rather than working from a list written with some other building in mind.

A seasonal routine that includes things your property does not have is quickly abandoned, and it hides the things it should have included.

Note which face of the building takes the driven rain and prevailing wind, since that elevation usually asks for attention more often than the sheltered sides.

Owners often treat all four elevations the same, when in practice one of them does most of the ageing.

Write down which parts of the building you can see properly from ground level and which you cannot see at all without equipment or somebody else going up.

Anything that cannot be seen safely from the ground should be looked at by somebody equipped for work at height, not from a household ladder.

Note which elements are new since the works, since those are the ones most worth following through their first complete run of seasons.

New work behaves differently while it dries out and beds in, and the first wet and cold spells are the real test of it.

Record which systems are only used at one part of the year, such as heating or an external water point, and are therefore never known to have failed until they are needed.

Seasonal items fail quietly out of season, and the discovery always happens at the least convenient moment.

Ask the installers of each new item what they expect to be looked at or attended to as the seasons turn, and write their answers down against the item.

Ask this of the installer of each item rather than applying one answer across everything, and confirm locally who is allowed to attend to it.

Note where pipework runs through unheated spaces such as a loft, an outbuilding or an under-floor void, and ask what protection was provided there during the works.

Protection of pipework against cold is a matter for a qualified plumber; ask what is appropriate rather than wrapping anything yourself.

Write down where the water supply can be shut off and make sure everybody in the household has actually seen it, well before the moment somebody needs it in a hurry.

Being shown a stop point at handover and being able to find it under pressure are two different things.

Ask what the installer expects to be done with outdoor taps and any external water point before cold weather, and record what you were told rather than what you have read elsewhere.

Arrangements for external water points vary by installation; follow what the installer says rather than general household advice.

Note which heating and hot-water items have not been used since the warm part of the year, and run them before the cold arrives rather than on the first cold night.

Anything that has failed quietly out of season is much easier to deal with while the trades are not already stretched.

Record where gutters, gullies and channels were last cleared and by whom, since a blocked route only announces itself when the water has nowhere left to go.

The absence of any record is usually the reason a route goes several seasons without being cleared at all.

Note which external doors and windows become hard to close as the weather turns, and where exactly they bind, rather than simply that they are stiff.

Seasonal binding is common as things take up moisture, and where it binds tells whoever adjusts it what to look at.

Note where rainwater leaves the roof and follow its route as far as you can see it from the ground, since the visible part is where blockages usually announce themselves.

Most rainwater problems appear at a joint, an outlet or a bend that is perfectly visible to anybody standing outside in the rain.

Record where the ground around the building becomes soft, holds water, or channels it towards a wall rather than away from it.

Where surface water collects and where it ought to go are questions for a qualified professional; note what you observe rather than digging or diverting anything.

Note any gully, grating or channel that is silting up, and whether it fills again soon after being cleared or stays clear until the next wet spell.

Something that refills quickly is a different matter from something that gradually accumulates, and the distinction is worth writing down.

Write down which paved or timber surfaces stay green and slippery through the wet season, and where they sit in relation to the routes people actually walk.

Slippery surfaces on a main route are worth attending to early, and they tend to reappear in much the same places.

Note where wind-driven rain reaches parts of the building it never reaches in ordinary weather, including under overhangs and into openings.

Driven rain is the condition most new external work is really tested by, and it happens on relatively few days.

Record anywhere water is discharging onto a surface rather than into a drainage route, including any temporary arrangement left in place after the works.

Where rainwater is meant to discharge is set by the design and by local requirements; ask a qualified professional rather than redirecting anything yourself.

Note where gaps open in dry weather and close again when it turns damp, since something that moves with the season is a different observation from something that keeps growing.

Seasonal movement is normal in many materials, and recording it as seasonal saves alarm the following year.

Record which rooms become uncomfortably warm and at which part of the day, together with what shading is actually in place at that moment.

Overheating is easily forgotten once the weather cools, and it is the observation most likely to be raised too late to act on.

Use a settled dry stretch for anything that can only be reached or worked on in good weather, and note what was found while somebody was up there.

The person who goes up for one task can look at everything else at the same time, but only if you ask them beforehand.

Note where timber outside has dried, opened at a joint or lifted, and which elevation it is on, since exposure explains most of the difference.

External timber ages very unevenly around a building, and knowing which face suffers helps set the routine.

Record where planting has grown into contact with the building since the last dry spell, rather than only noting that the garden has filled out.

Contact with the building is the part that matters, and it happens gradually enough that nobody notices the day it started.

Note where an external coating has faded, chalked or weathered unevenly across an elevation, and which parts are still as they were.

Whether a coating needs attention is a judgement for the material supplier or a qualified trade; record the appearance rather than deciding on treatment.

Note which trees and shrubs shed onto the roof or into the gutters, including any that stand outside your boundary, and which side of the property they affect.

The source of the leaf fall decides when in the year the routes need attention and who you may need to speak to about it.

Record where growth is touching a wall, a roof edge or a rainwater fitting, since contact is the thing that matters rather than how close something has grown.

Plants that touch hold moisture against a surface and work into joints, while plants that merely stand nearby usually do not.

Note where climbing plants have reached and whether they have got into a junction, an opening or under a roof edge rather than staying on open wall.

Whether a plant is affecting a building is a matter for a qualified professional, and some trees are subject to local restrictions; confirm locally before cutting anything back.

Write down where leaves collect and stay rather than blowing through, since those are the places to look at once the fall has finished rather than partway through it.

Clearing before the fall has finished simply means doing it again, which is how the second attempt gets skipped.

Note where moss or algae is accumulating on a roof surface, a paved area or a boundary structure, and whether it is spreading from one particular place.

Cleaning a roof surface is work at height and can damage a covering; ask the roofing trade or the material supplier what they consider appropriate.

Record whether anything planted after the works has grown across access to something that has to be reached, such as a meter, a gully or a route round the building.

New planting is chosen at its nursery size, and access is usually the first thing it takes away.

Decide which parts of the routine you will do from the ground with your own eyes, and write down plainly which parts you will not attempt under any circumstances.

Working at height, on a roof, or near electrical or fuel installations is not owner work; arrange for somebody equipped and competent to carry it out.

Ask which items must be attended to by somebody holding a particular qualification or registration, and confirm locally what applies where the property is.

Which work requires a qualified or registered person varies by location and by type of installation; confirm locally rather than relying on general guidance.

Note which items sit under a support arrangement with an installer or manufacturer, and what that arrangement expects you to have done and recorded.

What an arrangement requires of you is set out in its own terms; read them or ask the provider rather than assuming your routine satisfies them.

Write down what would need to be in place before somebody can look at a high or awkward part of the property, such as clear ground, a route in, or somebody present.

Visits are often wasted because nobody realised the access had to be arranged as well as the appointment.

Agree in writing who carries out each seasonal task where the property is let, shared, or looked after by somebody else on your behalf.

Shared responsibility is where seasonal tasks disappear entirely, because everybody assumes the other party has it in hand.

Note which tasks only make sense in a particular order, so that a route is cleared before whatever drains into it is looked at.

Doing them in the wrong order means the second visit discovers a problem the first one created.

Write the seasonal note against the property itself, listing what was looked at and what was found, rather than relying on remembering how the last round went.

Memory keeps the alarming findings and loses the ordinary ones, which are the ones that show a trend.

Note what you did not manage to look at this time and why, since the gaps in a seasonal record are the part that matters most.

An unbroken run of clean notes usually means something was never being looked at rather than that nothing was wrong.

Record who carried out each task and how they were reached, so the next round does not begin with trying to remember who came last time.

Reassembling contacts is one of the commonest reasons a seasonal routine quietly lapses after its first full round.

Flag anything that has appeared in more than one seasonal note with the same result, since a recurring entry is usually the point at which watching should become asking.

Recurring entries are easy to normalise, and the record is the only thing that shows they keep coming back.

Keep the seasonal note with the handover paperwork rather than somewhere separate, so that whoever takes the property on finds both together.

Seasonal notes filed on their own are almost never passed on, because nobody thinks of them as project paperwork.

Read the routine at the turn of the season rather than when something goes wrong, and change what is on it as the property and the planting around it change.

A list written at handover describes a property that no longer exists once the garden has grown and further work has been done.