What the house needs in February, south of the equator
10 jobs, in four groups.
February is the tail of the summer and the last comfortable month for the hot weather jobs. Finish the sealant, the dripping taps and the aerial if January got away from you. Rinse the dust off the solar panels from the ground, oil the garage door track and check that the safety stop actually stops something solid. This is also one of the two months for the twice yearly indoor round: wash the cooker extractor filters in very hot water, clear the sink and shower traps by hand, and read the water meter overnight to check for a slow leak, which matters more here than almost anywhere because of what water costs and how little of it there sometimes is. Keep painting outside while the weather is settled and dry. February is often the hottest month in the Western Cape and still storm season on the Highveld. Where a municipality has water restrictions in force, they bite hardest at the end of a dry Cape summer, so read the current level before you set the irrigation timer.
Safety
- Test every smoke alarm
- Every month. See January for how.
- Oil the garage door track and test the safety stop
- In December and again in February, put something solid in the door's path and check that it stops and reverses, then oil the track and the rollers.
Water and heating
- Change the washers on the dripping taps
- Change the washers in January or February. A steady drip wastes a great deal of water over a year, which matters wherever there are water restrictions, and it is one of the simpler plumbing jobs.
Inside
- Clear the sink and shower traps
- Twice a year, by hand rather than with drain cleaner. Most slow drains are hair and grease in the first ten centimetres.
- Wash the cooker extractor filters
- Three times a year, in the dishwasher or in very hot water with soda crystals. A greasy filter moves almost no air at all.
- Look at the sealant round the bath and the shower
- Look at it in January or February. Black or lifting sealant means water is getting behind it, and replacing it takes an afternoon while repairing the floor underneath takes much longer.
- Paint an inside room while the windows can stay open
- Paint an inside room between December and February, when the windows can stay open and the paint dries quickly. A room painted with the windows shut can smell of paint for a fortnight.
Outside
- Wash the bins out
- Still due this month. See November for how.
- Cut the growth back off the aerial and the dish
- Cut back anything growing towards the aerial or the dish in January or February, in the growing season, when the new growth is easy to see.
- Rinse the dust off the solar panels
- Rinse them with a hose from the ground, never a pressure washer, when the dust builds up. In the Western Cape that is the dry summer; in the summer rainfall regions the storms rinse them through the summer and the dust gathers in the dry winter, so look at them in August as well.
Tick them off as you go
This page is the plain list for February. The same list is tickable on the house through the year, where the ticks are kept on your own device and cleared at the start of each year. Nothing is sent anywhere.
The garden half of the month is on the almanac page for February, which covers what to sow, what to plant out and what is ready to pick.