What the house needs in February, south of the equator
10 jobs, in five 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.
Safety
- Test every smoke alarm
- Press the button on each one until it sounds. It takes two minutes and it is the single most useful thing on this list.
- Oil the garage door track and test the safety stop
- Twice a year. Put something solid in the way and check the door stops and reverses, then oil the track and the rollers.
Water and heating
- Change the washers on the dripping taps
- A tap dripping once a second is thousands of litres a year. It is one of the few plumbing jobs that is genuinely simple.
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
- Black or lifting sealant is water getting behind it. Cutting it out and doing it again is a Saturday, and the floor below is not.
- Paint an inside room while the windows can stay open
- Warm dry weather with the windows open is the difference between a room that smells of paint for a day and one that smells for a fortnight.
Outside
- Wash the bins out
- In the warm months, when it matters and when they dry in an hour. A rinse and a splash of disinfectant is enough.
- Cut the growth back off the aerial and the dish
- A branch across a dish is a picture that fails in bad weather only. Do it in the growing season when you can see what is new.
- Rinse the dust off the solar panels
- Twice in the dry season, with a hose from the ground and never a pressure washer. Dust costs a few per cent and is free to remove.
Tick them off as you go
This page is the plain list for February. The same list is tickable onthe 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 forFebruary, which covers what to sow, what to plant out and what is ready to pick.