A Home Maintenance Checklist After a Storm

If your neighborhood looked anything like ours after last week’s storms, you’ve probably spent more time than you planned dragging branches to the curb, filling yard waste bags, or listening to chainsaws in the distance.

Central Connecticut took a pretty good beating. High winds and heavy rain left plenty of downed trees, broken limbs, and debris scattered across neighborhoods. Thankfully, many homeowners escaped with only minor damage, but storms like these are also a good reminder that your home’s exterior takes more of a beating than you might realize.

Once you’ve finished cleaning up the obvious mess, it’s worth taking a few extra minutes to walk around your property. A quick inspection now can help you catch small issues before they turn into expensive repairs later.

1. Start with Your Roof

Before you even grab a ladder, take a slow walk around your house and look up. You’re looking for anything that seems out of place such as missing shingles, lifted ridge caps, damaged flashing around chimneys or vents, or branches that may have scraped across the roof.

Not every problem is obvious from the ground, but if something catches your eye, don’t ignore it. Even a small area of damage can allow water to work its way underneath the roofing materials, and the leak often doesn’t show up until the next heavy rain.

2. Give Your Gutters Some Attention

After a storm, gutters have a way of collecting everything from leaves and twigs to pine needles and seed pods. Once they’re clogged, they can’t do the job they’re designed to do.

Instead of carrying water away from your home, overflowing gutters can send water behind your siding, damage fascia boards, wash out landscaping, or even contribute to water finding its way into your basement.

If you’ve already been outside cleaning up branches, this is the perfect time to make sure your gutters and downspouts are clear and draining properly.

3. Don’t Forget the Trees That Stayed Standing

Most people notice the branches that came down. The ones that are still hanging overhead deserve just as much attention.

Look for cracked limbs, split trunks, or branches that are now hanging over your roof or rubbing against your siding. Storms often weaken trees without bringing them down immediately, which means the next windy day could finish the job.

If you have mature trees close to your home, it’s worth having an arborist take a look if anything seems questionable.

4. Walk the Outside of Your Home

Wind doesn’t have to knock something over to cause damage. Flying debris can loosen siding, crack trim, or damage the caulking around windows and doors.

Take a slow walk around your home and look closely. Small gaps may not seem like a big deal today, but they can allow water, insects, and moisture to find their way inside over time. Catching those little problems early is almost always easier and less expensive than waiting until they become major repairs.

5. Keep an Eye Out for Hidden Water Damage

Not every storm leaves behind obvious damage. Sometimes the warning signs don’t appear for several days.

Over the next week or two, keep an eye out for new water stains on ceilings, damp spots in the attic, peeling paint, musty odors, or discoloration around windows. Those subtle changes are often the first indication that wind-driven rain found a way into your home.

The earlier you catch a leak, the simpler and less costly the repair is likely to be.

6. Use This as a Chance to Get Ahead

One thing we’ve learned over the past several years is that severe weather isn’t as unusual as it once seemed. Strong storms have become part of life here in Connecticut, and the best time to prepare for the next one is while this one is still fresh in your mind.

Ask yourself a few simple questions. Are tree branches hanging over your roof? Are your gutters getting old? Is your roof nearing the end of its life? Are your windows and siding still doing the job they were designed to do?

You don’t have to tackle every project this season, but having a plan is always better than being caught off guard.

Once the branches are piled at the curb and your yard starts looking like itself again, spend just a little more time giving your home a careful once-over. A few minutes of maintenance today can help prevent a much bigger headache tomorrow.

Bob O’Donnell is the owner of O’Donnell Bros. Inc., a Bristol-based home improvement company established in 1975. Email your questions for Bob to info@odonnellbros.com with the subject line “Ask the Pro.” All questions may be considered for publication. To contact Bob for your remodeling needs, call O’Donnell Bros. Inc. at (860) 589-5155 or visit www.odonnellbros.com. Advice is for guidance only.

Summer Humidity Problems Nobody Talks About

Every summer, homeowners start noticing strange things around the house: foggy windows, musty basement smells, peeling paint, damp air vents, or condensation showing up where it shouldn’t. It’s not your imagination. Your house is sweating.

Connecticut summers create the perfect conditions for humidity problems, especially in basements. When warm, moisture-filled air comes into contact with cooler surfaces, condensation forms on windows, pipes, vents, walls, and floors. Left unchecked, that excess moisture can lead to mold, water damage, poor air quality, and expensive repairs over time.

Basements are often the biggest trouble spot because they naturally stay cooler than the upper floors of a home. During humid weather, outdoor air sneaks inside through doors, windows, foundation gaps, and poorly sealed areas. Once that humid air hits cool basement surfaces, moisture forms quickly.

One of the biggest misconceptions is that basements simply “feel damp because they’re basements.” In reality, excessive moisture should not be ignored. Over time, high humidity levels can contribute to mold growth, warped materials, peeling paint, mildew, and damage to stored belongings.

Another common mistake homeowners make is opening basement windows during extremely humid weather in an attempt to “air things out.” Ironically, this often makes the problem worse by allowing even more moisture-heavy air inside.

In many homes, a properly sized dehumidifier can make a dramatic difference. Ideally, homeowners want indoor humidity levels to stay somewhere around 40–50 percent during the summer months. Anything consistently higher can start causing issues throughout the home.

Air conditioning also plays a major role in humidity control. Many people think of air conditioners as simply cooling systems, but they also remove moisture from the air. If a home feels cool but still sticky or damp, it may indicate that the system is oversized, not running properly, or struggling to remove humidity effectively.

Sometimes homeowners unknowingly create humidity issues themselves through simple daily habits. Long hot showers without proper ventilation, drying laundry indoors, poor bathroom fan use, and cooking without exhaust ventilation can all add moisture into the air.

Bathroom exhaust fans are another overlooked issue. Many older homes either have undersized fans or fans that simply vent into attics instead of fully outside the home, which can create an entirely different set of moisture problems over time.

Condensation around air conditioning vents is another frequent summer complaint. In many cases, this happens when humid air meets very cold ductwork or vents. While some minor condensation can be normal during extremely humid weather, excessive dripping or staining may indicate insulation issues around ductwork or poor airflow.

Homeowners should also pay attention to signs of exterior moisture intrusion during summer storms. Clogged gutters, poor grading, and improperly directed downspouts can allow water to collect around foundations, increasing humidity problems inside the home.

The good news is that many humidity-related problems are manageable once identified early. Proper ventilation, dehumidification, drainage improvements, and regular HVAC maintenance can go a long way toward keeping homes more comfortable and preventing bigger issues down the road.

Because while nobody wants their house to feel like a Florida greenhouse in July, your basement also shouldn’t smell like a forgotten beach towel by mid-August.

Bob O’Donnell is the owner of O’Donnell Bros. Inc., a Bristol-based home improvement company established in 1975. Email your questions for Bob to info@odonnellbros.com with the subject line “Ask the Pro.” All questions may be considered for publication. To contact Bob for your remodeling needs, call O’Donnell Bros. Inc. at (860) 589-5155 or visit http://www.odonnellbros.com. Advice is for guidance only.

A Power Washing Problem

This time of year, you can spot it all over town. The first warm weekend hits, someone drags out a power washer, and suddenly every surface around the house is getting blasted.

On the surface, it feels productive. The house looks cleaner and the grime disappears. You stand back and think, great, my spring cleaning is done. The problem is, power washing is one of the easiest ways to accidentally damage your home if you don’t know what you’re doing.

I see it every spring. The biggest misconception is that more pressure equals a better clean. But it really means you’re forcing water into places it shouldn’t go or stripping away materials that are supposed to protect your home.

Take siding, for example. Vinyl siding is designed to shed water, not withstand high-pressure spray at close range. Aim a pressure washer upward or get too close, and you can drive water behind the panels. That moisture gets trapped and over time it can lead to mold, mildew, and even rot in the structure underneath.

Wood is even less forgiving. We’ve seen plenty of decks and trim that looked fine before a weekend cleaning and came out rough, splintered, and permanently damaged. Once you tear up the surface fibers of wood, you can’t undo it. You’re sanding, repairing, or replacing it entirely.

Then there are windows. High-pressure water can break seals, force moisture into frames, and shorten the lifespan of the window itself. Again, it might not show up immediately, but it’s the kind of damage that creeps in over time.

And don’t forget about paint. A pressure washer in the wrong hands can strip paint right off siding and trim. Sometimes people think they’re “prepping” a surface and end up creating a much bigger project than they planned for.

So what’s the right way to do it?

First, understand that most homes don’t need high pressure at all. What they need is the right cleaning solution and a controlled rinse. A soft wash with low pressure, combined with a cleaner that breaks down dirt, algae, and mildew is usually far more effective and a lot safer. One of my favorite products is Wet It and Forget it which doesn’t require any pressure washing at all and is great at removing common outdoor stains and grime.

Second, distance matters. Standing too close is where most of the damage happens. If you’re using a pressure washer, keep your distance and let the water do the work gradually instead of trying to blast everything off in one pass.

Third, know what you’re cleaning. Concrete can handle pressure. Your siding, trim, windows, and deck? Not in the same way. Treating everything the same is where people get into trouble.

Lastly, timing matters. Early spring is a great time to clean up your home’s exterior but it’s also when materials are still coming off a long winter. They’re not always in their strongest condition, which makes aggressive cleaning even riskier.

The goal here isn’t to scare you off from cleaning your house. It’s to do it in a way that actually helps instead of quietly creating problems you won’t notice until later. If you’re going to power wash this spring, ease up on the trigger. Your house will thank you for it.

Bob O’Donnell is the owner of O’Donnell Bros. Inc., a Bristol-based home improvement company established in 1975. Email your questions for Bob to info@odonnellbros.com with the subject line “Ask the Pro.” All questions may be considered for publication. To contact Bob for your remodeling needs, call O’Donnell Bros. Inc. at (860) 589-5155 or visit http://www.odonnellbros.com. Advice is for guidance only.