Pittsburgh winters don’t forgive procrastination. Every fall, before the first hard freeze, we run the same checklist on every home we manage — because a January furnace failure with a guest in the house is an emergency, and in October it’s a service call.
The list is unglamorous and that’s the point. Furnace serviced and filters changed before heating season, not during. Exterior faucets shut off and lines drained, because a burst pipe is the most expensive kind of preventable. Gutters cleared before the leaves finish, so meltwater goes where it should. Hot tubs — a winter selling point when they work, a winter liability when they don’t — checked, chemicals balanced, covers inspected. Weather stripping, smoke and CO detectors, salt and shovels staged at the door.
None of this is complicated. It’s just relentless, and it has a deadline the weather sets, not us.
For owners, the payoff is quiet: the winter phone that doesn’t ring. Guests stay warm, reviews stay strong, and the house comes out of March the way it went into November.
If nobody is running this list on your property right now, October is the month to fix that.
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