What the house needs in March, north of the equator
12 jobs, in five groups.
March is when the house can be looked at properly again. The frosts are easing, the light is back, and the damage the winter did is visible for the first time: cracked pointing, lifted ridge tiles, a fence post that rocks, moss thick on the north facing path. Take the binoculars into the garden and look the roof over from the ground rather than going up a ladder, and look at the pointing and the render while the marks are fresh. Indoors, this is a natural point for the twice yearly jobs: press the test button on the earth leakage unit, vacuum the dust off the back of the fridge, run a hot empty cycle through the washing machine. Service the mower now if February got away from you.
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.
- Test the carbon monoxide alarm
- Before the heating season and again in the middle of it. A carbon monoxide alarm has a sealed life of about seven years, printed on the back.
- Press the test button on the earth leakage unit
- Every six months. It should trip immediately. If it does not, that is an electrician rather than a job for the weekend.
- Look the ladder over before the outside work
- Feet, rungs and the locking catch. More people are hurt on a ladder at home than on any other tool in the shed.
- Test the burglar alarm and its battery
- Twice a year. Most alarm faults are a backup battery at the end of its life, which is a part rather than a call out.
Inside
- Vacuum the dust off the back of the fridge
- Twice a year. Dust on the coils makes the compressor work harder and run longer for the same cold.
- Run a hot empty cycle in the washing machine
- Quarterly, at the hottest setting with a machine cleaner or a cup of soda crystals. It is what stops the door seal smelling.
Outside
- Look the roof over from the ground
- Binoculars from the garden, twice a year. Slipped tiles, lifted ridge, a bird nesting in the flashing. Never from the ladder if you can avoid it.
- Clear the moss off the paths
- Twice a year, and always before the wet months. A mossy path is the commonest way people fall over at home.
- Look at the pointing and the render
- After the frosts or the storms. Cracked pointing lets water into a wall and shows up inside a year or two later as damp.
The garden edge
- Turn the compost heap
- Three or four times a year. Air is what turns a heap into compost rather than into a wet layer of grass clippings.
- Service the mower before the mowing starts
- New plug, clean filter, sharp blade and fresh fuel. Everyone books a service in the first week of long grass.
Tick them off as you go
This page is the plain list for March. 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 forMarch, which covers what to sow, what to plant out and what is ready to pick.