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Spring in Suffolk rarely arrives politely. One week you are eating lunch outside, the next a north-easterly is firing rain at the coast and the garden has turned back to mud. That swing is hard on houses, and the damage it does is usually quiet: a gutter that has stopped draining, a line of mastic that has given up, a fence post rotting quietly below ground level. An afternoon or two of checking now, before new growth hides the evidence, is the cheapest maintenance you will do all year. Here is what to work through, starting with the things that cause the most trouble.
You do not need to climb up there to learn a lot. On a dry, bright day, walk the perimeter of the house with a pair of binoculars and look for slipped or cracked tiles, tiles sitting out of line, missing mortar along the ridge, and cracked or lifted flashing around the chimney and any roof vents. Older Suffolk properties with clay pantiles or peg tiles tend to shed the odd tile after a windy spell, and one missing tile can let in a surprising amount of water.
Take a torch up and look for daylight through the roof covering, dark staining on rafters, or wet insulation. A water stain on a rafter tells you water has been getting in for a while, even if the ceiling below still looks fine. Also look at the chimney breast in upstairs rooms for damp patches, particularly after heavy rain driven onto a particular side of the house.
Anything above head height is best left to someone with the right ladders, roof access equipment and insurance. It is not a job to improvise.
Blocked gutters are behind a large share of the damp, rotten fascia and stained brickwork we see around the county. Clear them twice a year: once in late autumn after the leaves come down, and again now, when moss and grit have washed off the roof over winter.
Put the ladder on firm, level ground, keep three points of contact, and never rest it against plastic guttering without a stand-off. If the house is two storeys or the access is awkward, book someone.
Wash frames and glass with warm soapy water and a soft cloth, then look closely at the details. Check the mastic seal around the outside of each frame and replace any sections that are cracked, shrunk or pulling away; that seal is what keeps wind-driven rain out of the wall. On timber sash windows, check the putty and the paint on the sills, which take the worst of the weather.
Oil hinges, check handles, latches and locks, and make sure trickle vents are open and clear. Near the coast, salt and wind-driven rain attack metal fittings, so wipe hinges and handles down and give them a light spray of silicone or oil. Check the threshold and rain bar at the bottom of external doors; if water is tracking in under an external door, the seal or the sill is usually the reason.
Walk around the outside and look for cracked render, paint that has blown or flaked, green algae on north-facing walls and moss growing in brick joints. In older properties with flint or lime-mortar walls, repairs need to be breathable. Patching lime with cement traps moisture inside the wall, and that moisture has to come out somewhere, often through the inside face.
Re-paint bare timber before it becomes rot, and treat any small areas of soft wood sooner rather than later. If your house is listed, or sits in a conservation area, check with your local council's conservation officer before you change materials or alter the exterior, including some repairs. It is also worth taking advice from a qualified surveyor or conservation specialist on older walls rather than guessing.
Sweep and wash decking, then check for boards that feel soft underfoot. If you can reach the joists, check those too, since they fail first and are hidden. Once it is clean and dry, re-oil or re-stain, which is far easier now than in high summer.
On patios and paths, pull out weeds and top up the joints with kiln-dried sand. Press down on any slab or paver that rocks; a wobble now becomes a trip hazard later. For fences, push each post firmly. If a post moves, it has usually rotted at or below ground level and will come down in the next gale, taking panels with it. Oil gate hinges and latches and tighten anything loose. Finally, check shed and outbuilding roofs, doors and window seals, and clear leaves from around the base so timber is not sitting in damp.
Turn on the outside tap and watch for leaks at the wall plate and the spout, since frost splits them more often than people expect. Check the isolation valve inside too. Find your internal stopcock and make sure it turns; a seized stopcock is no help in an emergency. Bleed radiators and check that the boiler has been serviced. Gas appliance work needs a registered engineer, so book that rather than attempting it.
Clear air bricks and ground-level vents, and check gullies and drains run away freely after a downpour. If a drain is slow, deal with it before summer.
Work from the top down and outside in: roof first, then gutters, then walls and joinery, then the ground. If you are hiring help, ask for the person doing the job, not just a quote, and check they carry insurance for work at height. Spread anything expensive over two or three months rather than trying to do it all in one weekend, and keep a note of what you did and when. Next spring, the list will take half the time.
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