The pre-summer heat and storm check

Spring is the window for this one. Summer tests an Australian house completely differently to winter — heat, ultraviolet and sudden violent water instead of months of steady rain — and almost everything on this list is easier, safer and cheaper to deal with before the first serious hot spell arrives.

Three checks, one for each turn of the year. Autumn — before winter. Late winter — after the wet. Spring — before summer, which is this one. If it is not the season you are in, go to whichever comes next.

The end-of-winter check is about water that has already been through. This one is about getting ahead of what is coming.

There is also a practical reason not to leave it. Several of these jobs involve the roof cavity, and by December an Australian roof space is genuinely dangerous — not uncomfortable, dangerous. Do them now while it is still bearable.

The roof cavity, while you still can

A roof space in summer can run far hotter than the air outside, and heat stress comes on quickly in an enclosed space with no airflow. Spring is the last comfortable window of the year.

Check the insulation coverage. Look for gaps at the perimeter where the ceiling meets the external wall, batts pushed aside by anyone who has been working up there, and compressed sections. Gaps at the edges cost you most, because that is where the ceiling runs coldest in winter and hottest in summer.

Find out where the exhaust fans discharge. If they terminate in the cavity rather than outside, you have a moisture source above your ceiling all year and a heat problem on top of it in summer — see where does your bathroom exhaust fan actually vent.

Look at the ventilation. Eave vents blocked by insulation pushed too far into the eaves, whirlybirds seized or removed, ridge vents obstructed. A roof cavity that cannot exhaust hot air pushes that heat down through the ceiling into the rooms below.

Check for daylight and for staining. Same as the winter check, but you are looking for anything winter revealed that has not been dealt with.

Heat and ultraviolet on the outside

Summer degrades a house through sunlight as much as temperature, and it works on the small components first.

• Rubber washers on metal roof fasteners. These perish under UV and each failed washer is a small open hole. Look for backed-out screws and cracked or flattened washers.
• Sealant and silicone. Around windows, flashings, penetrations and wet areas. Cracked, hardened or lifting sealant is a leak waiting for the first heavy storm.
• External timber. Decking, posts, pergolas, window frames. Check whether water still beads on the surface — if it soaks in, the coating has gone and the timber is taking UV directly.
• Plastics and brackets. Downpipe brackets, gutter guard, vent covers, solar cable ties. UV makes them brittle and they fail in the first strong wind.
• Paintwork on north and west elevations. These take the most sun in Australia and will always fail first. Chalking, fading and hairline cracking are the early signs.

Getting ready for storm season

Winter rain is a volume-over-time problem. A summer storm is a volume-in-minutes problem, and the failure modes are different.

Gutters and downpipes need to be clear for capacity, not just for debris. A gutter that copes with steady winter rain can overflow in a summer downpour simply because it cannot move water fast enough. Check the falls, check the outlets, and run a hose at volume rather than a trickle.

Look for overflow provision. Where does the water go when the gutter is overwhelmed? Over the front edge and onto the garden is fine. Backwards into the eaves or the wall is not — see why your roof only leaks in heavy rain or wind.

Box gutters and internal drainage deserve particular attention, because when those overflow the water goes inside the building rather than outside it. Confirm the outlet is clear and that an overflow exists.

Secure loose items. Shade sails, umbrellas, trampolines, loose roof sheeting, unsecured gutter guard. Summer storms arrive with wind that winter rain does not.

Look up at the trees. Dead limbs over the roof, branches touching tiles or gutters, anything that has grown into contact since last summer.

Cooling, before you need it

The worst time to discover the air conditioning does not work is the first forty-degree day, when every technician in the city is booked out.

• Run the system now, in cooling mode, for long enough to know it works properly rather than just switching on.
• Clean or replace the filters. A blocked filter costs you capacity and efficiency before anything else fails.
• Check where the condensate discharges. A split system can produce a surprising volume of water, and discharging it against the slab edge or the base of a wall causes exactly the moisture problems you would otherwise be trying to avoid.
• Evaporative coolers need their pads and water systems checked, and they add humidity to the house — worth knowing if you have had condensation problems.
• Ceiling fans. Check the direction setting. Reversible fans move air downward for summer and the switch is frequently left on the winter setting all year.

Shading, and what it is actually worth

Stopping sunlight before it reaches the glass does far more than managing it afterwards. External shading — an awning, a screen, a shutter, a well-placed tree — outperforms any internal blind, because by the time light has passed through the window it has already become heat in the room.

Worth checking now: awnings and blinds that have seized or torn over winter, deciduous planting that has not yet leafed out, and whether the eaves are actually doing anything on your west-facing glass. In Australia, west is the hard one — the sun arrives low in the afternoon and eaves do not intercept it.

Water and the ground

Summer dries the soil, and on reactive clay that means the ground shrinks away beneath the footings. This is the season when doors start binding and cracks open up — see cracks and sticking doors on reactive clay.

The useful principle is consistency rather than volume. Soil that stays evenly moist moves less than soil that swings between bone dry and saturated. Check that irrigation near the building is even and not concentrated in one spot, that downpipes still discharge away from the house, and that garden beds against the wall are not being watered daily while the rest of the perimeter bakes.

The two seasonal jobs that also belong here

Both have their own articles because both are substantial, but this is when they need doing.

Termite season. Activity rises sharply from spring and swarming runs through to early summer — see what to check as termite season arrives.

Bushfire preparation, if you are in a bushfire-prone area. That work has its own timetable and its own requirements — see preparing the house for bushfire season.

What is worth doing now versus later

Do now: anything in the roof cavity, air conditioner service and filters, clearing gutters and confirming outlets, replacing perished fasteners and sealant, securing loose items, and cutting back branches over the roof.

Can wait, but plan for it: recoating external timber, repainting sun-facing elevations, installing external shading, and replacing gutter runs. These are better quoted properly and done in settled autumn weather than rushed in December.

A note on safety

The heat itself is the hazard this time of year. Roof cavities become dangerous well before the outside temperature does. Work in the early morning, tell someone you are up there, take water, and come down the moment you feel unwell rather than finishing the job.

The same ladder and roof cautions from the winter check apply, with one addition: metal roofs and tiles get hot enough to burn, and a roof that is safe to walk at eight in the morning is not at two in the afternoon.

Where to go next

Between them, the three seasonal checks cover most of what an Australian house needs from its owner each year.

Read next: the pre-winter damp and drainage check if autumn is closer than summer where you are, or the end-of-winter roof and gutter check for assessing what winter has just done.

Nothing on this list takes long. All of it is easier in October than in January.