Getting your home ready for summer isn't about deck chairs. It's about sorting what winter broke and prepping for the specific ways summer stresses a London property — heat, UV, open windows, garden traffic, BBQ grease. Here's a practical summer home maintenance checklist, ordered by how much damage skipping each one causes.
A 7-step summer home maintenance checklist
1. Fix what winter broke
Before looking forward, look back. Walk the exterior with a notebook:
- Slipped or cracked roof tiles. Visible from the pavement. One missing tile now saves a leak in August's storm rain.
- Cracked pointing. Tap mortar joints — if powder comes off on your finger, frost has damaged them.
- Lifted flashing around chimneys or parapets. Lead moves in freeze-thaw cycles. Check visible edges for gaps.
- Cracked render. Hairline is decorative; anything wider than 1mm lets water in.
- Paint failing on window frames. Peeling paint exposes timber to UV — three months of summer sun finishes the job.
2. Clear the drains and gutters (the biggest one)
Winter dumps leaves, twigs, moss, and roof debris. Come summer, the first heavy downpour finds the blockage. For a Victorian Fulham terrace, this means:
- Clear front and rear gutters — worth doing professionally for a standard terrace.
- Check downpipes run free — pour a bucket of water from the top.
- Clear the gully at the base of each downpipe.
- If you're in a conversion flat, check the hopper heads (small rain-gutter pans on the facade). They silt up silently.
Blocked gutters are the single most common cause of summer water damage in London stock.
3. Service the air flow
UK summers now hit 28–32°C in a Fulham bedroom without ventilation help. Three low-effort improvements:
- Service extractor fans. Kitchen and bathroom fans clog with grease and lint. Clean the blade, check the flap on the external vent opens.
- Check window trickle vents. Small slots at the top of the frame — open them. Many people tape them shut in winter and forget.
- Clean AC units if fitted. Filter wash, condenser coil dust blown out, drain line checked. Otherwise they're blowing stale air and drawing more power than they should.
4. Check external wood and paint
UV destroys exterior timber faster than rain does. Worth 20 minutes with a Stanley knife and a paint tin:
- Window sills — scrape any flaking paint, sand, prime, repaint.
- Fascias and soffits — usually wood on Victorian and Edwardian stock. Look for soft patches where birds might nest.
- Garden fencing — a quick tin of Cuprinol now saves a fence collapse in September.
- External doors — reseal weather strips on the bottom edge before they warp.
5. Garden and boundary jobs
Summer is when garden neglect becomes visible, expensive, and occasionally legal:
- Check boundary trees for overhang. A neighbour can legally cut branches overhanging their side; better to handle proactively.
- Japanese knotweed check. Red-and-green shoots March–May. A Fulham knotweed case becomes a serious mortgage-blocker if it reaches the neighbour.
- Patio joints. Weeds push paving up. Sand the joints, rebind if needed.
- Garden wall pointing. Same frost damage as the house — easier to catch small.
6. Plumbing checks before holiday season
The three things that make insurers miserable in August:
- Washing machine hoses. Check for cracking at the bends. Replace every 5 years regardless.
- Under-sink connections. Wiggle the isolator valves — they seize up from lack of use, then snap when you need them. Ease each one gently.
- Outside tap / garden hose bib. If not used in winter, test it before the hose goes on. A split pipe behind the wall floods without warning.
7. Don't forget the boring safety stuff
- Test smoke alarms. Change batteries even if still working.
- Check the carbon monoxide alarm if you have gas appliances.
- Have the boiler serviced now, not in November when every Gas Safe engineer is booked out.
What Fulham stock specifically needs
A few jobs that don't apply everywhere but do apply to most Fulham homes:
- Valley gutter clearance. Shared valleys between terraces silt up. Summer is the only time it's easy to access.
- Shared soil stack inspection. For conversion flats. If it's rattling or seeping, get it checked before autumn rain returns.
- Riverside property damp check. Flats near the Thames embankment carry higher ambient humidity — summer is when damp retreats enough to diagnose properly.
Fulham BM runs a flat-fee summer property check — two hours on site, written report, photos. Book one here. 20+ years in SW6, FMB and Chas accredited, no subcontractors.
