Tucson Homeowners Alliance
Home Tips for Spring

Spring is a crucial time in maintaining your house when an ounce of prevention can save lots of expenses and other costs later on.

Recovering from Winter
Spring brings an end to cold temperatures, frost and freezing damage.

Check for water leaks, both inside and out. According to national surveys, water is biggest and most costly cause of damage to houses. Water rots wood and drywall, rusts steel, dissolves other materials, stains surfaces, attracts termites and other pests, and feeds the growth and spread of mold. Deal with any leaks you find immediately. The biggest mistake homeowners make is to delay repairs, to put them off. That is the road to ruin. It gets easier to put off every day you do so. Until you take things apart and look at them, it may not be clear how widespread or serious the damage is. Water leaks are an urgent call for action. Don't delay. The damage can spread ... well, like water.

Check for freeze damage. Frost damage to plants and leaks in outdoor water pipes are just the start of your concerns. Rainwater and condensation can intrude in all kinds of cracks, holes and other places in walls and roof of your house and cause lots of problems that only get worse over time. Protecting the integrity of the building envelope is job one in maintaining your house. So take some time on a pleasant day to look carefully over the external surfaces of your house, especially vulnerable places like corners, edges and transitions between two kinds of materials. Be sure to use appropriate materials to fill in holes and cracks. When in doubt, ask.

Shut down heating systems properly. Except for heat pumps, most heating systems should be shut down properly at the end of the heating season, carefully following manufacturer's instructions. If in doubt, call your heating and cooling service or your gas company - they're both happy to help customers avoid destroying the house. With gas heating systems, it's generally best to shut off the gas to the heater, as a safety measure. The appropriate valve should be somewhere along the gas pipe before it enters the heater. Turn it fully to the "off" position (generally the valve handle rotates perpendicular to the pipe for the "Off" position). If in doubt, ask. With some heating systems, you should also insert a baffle into the duct so that air from the cooler does not leak out through the heating system.

Uniquely Spring
Some things are best done in spring time, just because it's spring.

Spring planting. Spring is the best time for most planting in our region. It's also one of the most pleasant times to be doing things outside. It's a great time to be working in your yard. If you plant new plants, be careful to discuss the issue of frost – some may need protection until after the last frost. When's that? You can never tell in Tucson, but you're generally safe after the spring equinox (around April 21). (In fact, it is generally pretty warm by then.) However, if you are willing to be alert and protect new plants on frosty nights, it's often better to plant well before that, to give them more time to adjust before summer heat hits and the ice starts to break up on the Santa Cruz.

Spring cleaning. Tucson has such a mild climate that this doesn't carry the same importance that it does in cold northern climates, but what better time to give your house a thorough cleaning? This ritual will help you keep on top of things. Go through your entire house, indoors and out, and keep your eyes and other senses alert for other things that need attention too. The best time to fix things is almost always ASAP.

Preparing for Summer
Tucson is notorious for summer extremes of sun, heat, dryness and monsoon thunderstorms. You can take smart steps to better protect your property, improve comfort and reduce cooling costs.

Prepare your evaporative cooler. Doing it on a nice pleasant spring day may be preferable to the first day of summer. Clean thoroughly, removing all dust and dirt. Clean or replace pads. Oil blower motor and adjust pulley tension (generally, so you can easily displace pulley perpendicularly with your forefinger no more than one inch). Check integrity of water sump – if there are cracks or holes in the paint of a metal pan, repair or refinish it. This beats having to replace the whole unit because of rust. Clean and oil water pump and replace water filter screens around it. Check the float valve and water level in sump – adjust carefully so water is not so high that it rusts frames holding pads, or so low that the water pump burns out. Check adiabatic damper if you have one – this is what automatically lets the air from the cooler into your ducts, but closes when the cooler is not operating. The flaps sometimes get stuck or rust. If you have a baffle in the duct instead, remember to remove that (this is inserted at the start of the heating season to stop heated air from going out through the cooler). Turn it on for a while to test it and be sure everything is working properly. At end, check water distribution and flow in "spider" and the water level in the sump again.

Change the AC air filter. Air conditioning and heat pumps need a change of air intake filters regularly. Letting this go can be very expensive: a clogged filter reduces air flow and increases the load on the blower motor and compressor. Timely $1 filter changes not only allow your system to operate more efficiently, they can help you avoid $1,000 changes to your AC unit. Don't even think of operating your system without a filter - the dust will build up in the coils of your AC unit and unclogging it is a professional job that pays well.

Have your air conditioner or heat pump checked and serviced regularly. This is a job that is best left to professionals with the right equipment. An older unit may need checking as often as every year or two. Newer ones can be done less frequently. Technicians are trained and equipped to conduct tests and maintain appropriate levels of refrigerant. These checkups typically cost about $75 – not bad compared to the cost of a new system (say, $3500).

You can operate your coolers more efficiently. The lower the outdoor temperature, the more efficient your cooler will run. Coolness or heat can be "stored" in the thermal mass of the interior of your house (e.g. concrete or masonry or tile floors, walls and features). Therefore you can have a more comfortable house at lower cost by turning on your cooler early in the morning, when the outdoor temperature is lowest, and using it to "recharge" the thermal mass inside your house for coolness. How early? Well, an hour or two before sunrise would be best, if you have a programmable thermostat, but first thing when you get up will be better than not. The better your house insulation, the longer this will last during the day. It is now possible to design and build a house very cost-effectively so that this will last the whole day without additional cooling. Similarly, in the winter, you can run your heat pump during the warmest part of the day and recharge interior mass to become warm.

Turn your cooler off when the house is unoccupied. We're often asked what is the best strategy for when you are away from the house during the day: is it better to leave the cooler on or turn it off? The laws of thermodynamics are clear: the rate of heat transfer through your building envelop is proportional to the difference in temperature between indoors and out. During the day that temperature difference soars and heat transfer soars with it. Therefore, if you want to save on cooling costs, turn your cooler off while you're away. You're wasting your money cooling a house that just leaks it to the outside. If you would like a cool house when you come home, just install a programmable thermostat so you can set it to turn again just before you return home. You'll recover the cost of the thermostat quickly in energy savings.

Clean, dust and oil your portable fans and ceiling fans. If you don't, all that dust will end up in your air the first time you turn them on. Ignoring lubrication for your motors will result in their premature demise.

Protect against dryness. The air is typically so dry in Tucson that dries your mucous membranes and nasal passages, inhibiting normal function and contributing to our region's plethora of respiratory problems. For the same reason, many who are afflicted with asthma breathe easier in Tucson. Doctors frequently recommend higher humidity for most people. The advantage of evaporative coolers is that they provide moisture to the air. Their disadvantage is that they must be maintained regularly or the water could become a problem. Indoor plants are reported to be good at increasing humidity and improving indoor air quality. Things like standing water or mini-fountains require very careful maintenance, frequent cleaning and frequently changing of the water to prevent contamination with airborne mold, mildew, bacteria and other microbes. Avoid additives like chlorine bleach, which can get into the air and cause more health problems.

Protect against monsoon thunderstorms. For a period of about two months every year (July - September), the monsoon winds usher in a season of spectacular storms that drench Southern Arizona with most of its annual rainfall and make our fair city one of the lightning capitals of the world. This meteorological madness is hard on houses. Most roof leaks start or become unmistakable at this time. It's a good idea to inspect your roof thoroughly in the spring and fix potential problems before they happen. It sure beats doing it in the middle of a thunderstorm - and, if you need a roofing contractor, you'll also find them a lot more available and less costly too. This is a good time to check the integrity of your entire building envelope, including external walls, foundation, doors, windows and vents. Also, make sure that water drains away from your house in all directions - flooding from just yard drainage problems causes a lot of damage to houses here every year.

Shade your house. Arizona basks in the region of the most intense solar resource in the nation: you can adapt or fry. Just a few shade trees on the south, east and west sides of your house can make a big difference in both your comfort and your utility bills. If you choose native or good desert adapted trees, like mesquites or palo verdes, they will thrive on very little care. Bushes and vines can also help shade the walls of your house, as well as windows and doors. Curtains, upholstery and carpeting fade and disintegrate over time in direct sunlight: shading your windows can reduce replacement costs of these expensive items too.

Shade your property. "Zeroscape" is not the same as xeriscape. Xeriscape is wise use of native and desert adapted plants for effective landscaping. Zeroscape is a yard devoid of plants, typically covered in gravel, pavement, asphalt or bare dirt, effectively placing the house in the middle of the landscape equivalent of a frying pan. Learning the basics of xeriscape and passive solar design, you can make your home a lot more comfortable, substantially reduce cooling and heating costs, and make your home an oasis of coolness in the summer. The other good news is that it doesn't have to cost very much.

Reduce reflective surfaces. White gravel, concrete and other surfaces on the south, east and west sides of the house reflect the heat of the sun on the house. This is the same as radiant heating - a bad choice in Tucson.

Choose materials wisely. The sun's radiation can be very damaging to materials. In designing and choosing materials for home improvement or repair on the outside of your house, it's good to keep in mind that metal, masonry and stucco hold up well in the sun - wood, plastics and fabrics do not. By choosing the right design and the right materials you can do the job well the first time and relax, rather than having to maintain or re-do it periodically.

Drain the water heater. Most of Tucson is cursed with hard water, death on water heaters. When things start getting hot again, drain your water heater. This should be done at least once a year to help reduce the buildup of mineralization in the tank. If you don't do this regularly, the tank will fill with minerals and your water heater will die prematurely. This ounce of prevention is well worth the small effort it takes. Just turn the water heater off some time before so that you can use the water you have heated – and avoid getting scalded. For electric water heaters, this can be done at the circuit breaker (generally two switches of high amperage, ganged together) – just be sure you have the right ones. For gas, simply rotate the control valve to "pilot." Connect your best hose to the drain on the heater, tighten it well to reduce leakage and place a baking pan and/or towels under it to catch the drips. Put the other end somewhere in the yard where the water will be useful. Scoop up the minerals that come out and toss them – our soils have too much of this already. This is best done during the warmer period when the incoming water is hot anyway and you don't need much energy to heat it further.

Perform other periodic maintenance. Spring is a good time to do other regular periodic maintenance. For example, check the batteries in fire, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, security systems, alarm clocks and other things with batteries. In some cases, it might be best simply to replace them annually. (Have you even been wakened at 3:00 a.m. by your fire alarm, just telling you that its battery is low?) Also, check the charge in your fire extinguishers. If you are missing any of these, you might want to go to the public library and look in Consumer Reports to find out why you need them, what you need and how to shop for them.

Stay tuned. This page is still under development and more suggestions will be coming soon. Please be sure you send us your own thoughts and ideas and share your experience too. We'll happily credit good ideas.

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