Getting Your Utah Home Ready for Winter: The Exterior Checklist

Sep 29

Utah winters don't negotiate. Freeze-thaw cycles, heavy snow, canyon winds, and weeks below freezing will find every weak spot on your home's exterior — and the repair always costs more in February than the prevention would have in October. Here's the exterior checklist I run through every fall, in the order that matters.

1. Gutters and Downspouts

Start here, because clogged or failing gutters cause a disproportionate share of winter damage.

Clean them out. Leaves, needles, and shingle granules trap water. Trapped water freezes, expands, and turns your gutter into an ice trough that feeds ice dams and pulls the gutter away from the fascia. If you only do one thing on this list, do this.

Check the slope and fasteners. Gutters should slope gently toward downspouts. Look for sections pulling away from the house, sagging between hangers, or leaking at the seams. A gutter that can't carry water in October definitely can't carry ice in January.

Extend the downspouts. Downspouts should discharge water well away from the foundation — not right at the base of the house where it saturates the soil, freezes, and pushes against your foundation walls. Extensions are cheap. Foundation problems are not.

Consider heat cable if you always get ice. If the same gutter sections freeze solid every winter, heat trace cable run through the gutter and downspout keeps water moving. It's a targeted fix for a recurring problem, not something every house needs.

2. Roof: A Ground-Level Inspection

You don't need to get on the roof — in fact, please don't this time of year. But walk around the house and look:

Missing, cracked, or curling shingles, especially after wind season. Utah's canyon winds do their worst work in fall.
Flashing around chimneys, vents, and skylights. If it looks lifted, separated, or rusted through, water will find it the first time snow melts.
The eaves. If you had ice dams last winter, you'll likely have them again unless something changed. Fall is the time to address attic insulation, ventilation, or heat cable — not when there's two feet of snow up there.
Overhanging branches. Limbs loaded with snow break and land on roofs. Trim back anything hanging over the house.

If anything looks off and you're not sure, that's what a professional roof inspection is for. An hour of someone's time in October beats an emergency leak call in January.

3. Siding and Exterior Gaps

Water gets into houses through gaps you'd walk right past in summer. In winter, those gaps let in water that freezes, expands, and makes the gap bigger — every single cycle.

Walk the perimeter and look for:

Cracked or missing caulk around windows, doors, and trim.
Gaps where siding meets trim, corners, or the foundation.
Damaged or loose siding sections, especially on the windward side of the house.
Hose bibs and exterior penetrations — gaps around pipes, vents, and electrical boxes are prime entry points for both water and cold air.

Recaulk what needs it. Use a quality exterior-grade sealant rated for the temperature range — and check the label, because most caulk won't cure properly below a certain temperature. Once it's consistently cold, you've missed the window until spring.

4. Hose Bibs and Exterior Water

This is the single most common freeze-damage call I see, and it's almost entirely preventable.

Shut off interior valves to exterior hose bibs if your house has them, then open the outside bib to drain the line. A hose bib with water sitting in the pipe will freeze, split the pipe inside the wall, and you won't know until spring — when it thaws and floods.

Disconnect all hoses. A connected hose traps water in the bib and prevents it from draining, even on frost-free sillcocks. Every fall I see the damage from a twenty-dollar hose left connected.

Blow out sprinklers before the first hard freeze if you have an irrigation system. Water left in those lines and heads will crack them.

5. The Attic Peek

Pop your head into the attic for two minutes. You're checking three things:

Daylight where it shouldn't be — around vents, chimneys, or along the eaves. Daylight means a gap, and gaps mean water entry.
Insulation coverage — thin, compressed, or missing insulation over the living space means heat pouring onto the roof deck, which means ice dams.
Signs of past leaks — stained decking or insulation tells you where water got in last winter. Better to know now.

6. Outdoor Equipment and Extras

Cover or store anything that shouldn't sit under snow load all winter.
Check exterior lighting — you'll be coming home in the dark for months, and motion lights around entry points matter more in winter.
Test the garage door in cold weather if it's been acting up. Springs and openers fail more in the cold, and a stuck door at 6 AM in January is miserable.

Why October, Not December

Everything on this list is cheaper and easier before the weather turns. Caulk won't cure in freezing temperatures. Nobody wants to clean gutters off a ladder in a snowstorm. Roof work in winter is emergency work, priced accordingly.

The pattern I see every year: the homeowners who spend a weekend on this in the fall are the ones who don't call me in February. The ones who skip it are the ones dealing with ice dams, burst hose bibs, and leaks when it's ten degrees outside.

Want a trained eye on it before winter hits? Mastercraft Restoration LLC does exterior home inspections across the Greater Salt Lake area, Park City, and Summit County — gutters, roof, siding, and all the spots winter likes to attack. Call (385) 608-1695.

Mike Arellano