Every Toronto winter does a number on your house — freeze-thaw cycles crack things, ice dams stress gutters, and salt eats everything near the driveway. Spring is when you find the damage while it's still cheap to fix.
Here's the checklist we actually run, in the order that makes sense.
Start at the top: gutters and roofline
Winter fills gutters with grit, shingle granules and whatever the wind brought. Clogged gutters overflow, and overflowing gutters are how water ends up in basements. Clean them (or have us do it — it's quick), and while you're up there, look for shingles that lifted or lost granules over winter.
We wrote a whole post on gutter cleaning frequency in Toronto if you want the details.
Walk the exterior with a coffee
One slow lap around the house. You're looking for:
- Cracked or gapping caulk around windows and doors — this is your air conditioning bill leaking out
- Siding that popped loose in wind storms
- Concrete or interlock that heaved from frost — trip hazards now, drainage problems later
- The hose bibs — turn on outdoor water and check inside the wall for any sign of a leak from a pipe that froze
Any of these are small fixes right now. All of them get worse by August.
The deck
If your deck is wood, spring is decision time: does it need a wash, a re-stain, or actual board repair? Press a screwdriver into any suspicious board — if it sinks in soft, that board's done. Water beading test for the stain: pour a glass of water on the deck, and if it soaks in flat instead of beading, it's time to re-seal before summer sun bakes the bare wood.
The wash
Once pollen season winds down, a proper pressure wash resets the whole exterior — driveway, walkways, siding, patio. This is the single most visible thing on this list, and it's also proper prep if you're painting or staining anything this year.
Inside, ten minutes
Test smoke and CO detectors, flip the furnace to fan-only and swap the filter, and run a flashlight under every sink. That last one catches more problems than anything else on this list.
Or just make one call
We do all of this as a single spring visit for homeowners across Vaughan, Markham and the rest of the GTA — one crew, one morning, full list. Call (365) 360-1416 and we'll get you on the spring schedule.
Need this handled at your property?
Scheduled appointments and urgent response timing are confirmed by phone.
