The Northern Ireland home calendar: what to check and book, month by month

The last reliable dry window, and the month to get ahead of everyone else. Heating demand is about to arrive and almost nobody has acted on it yet.

• ✓Clear gutters and downpipes before the autumn rain returns.
• ✓Check the roof and flashing while it is dry enough to do safely.
• ✓Run the heating for an hour and listen for anything that is not right.

Heating season begins. The first cold week of the year is when every dormant heating fault announces itself at once, and every engineer gets busy on the same day.

Availability collapses. The good trades, the ones with a full diary because they are good, fill first. What is left in week three of a cold snap is not the same pool you had in August.

Emergency pricing replaces planned pricing. A job slotted into a diary is efficient. The same job squeezed around existing commitments, sometimes out of hours, is not, and the quote reflects it.

Your judgement gets worse. This is the one that really costs. Nobody compares three quotes carefully with water coming through the ceiling. Urgency is exactly the condition doorstep callers and rogue traders rely on, and it is the reason people accept a price they would have questioned in July.

The coldest stretch of the NI year, and the month burst pipes actually happen. Heating systems that were limping in December fail properly in January.

• ✓Find your stopcock and make sure it turns. In an emergency you have minutes, not hours.
• ✓Lag any exposed pipework in the loft, garage and outbuildings.
• ✓If the house will be empty, leave the heating on low rather than off entirely.
• ✓Bleed radiators that are cold at the top.

Still storm season, and the month winter damage becomes visible: slipped slates, lifted ridge tiles, blown fence panels, cracked pointing.

• ✓After each storm, look over the roof from the ground with binoculars for slipped or missing slates.
• ✓Check the loft in daylight with the light off. Pinpricks of light mean a hole.
• ✓Look for damp patches appearing on upstairs ceilings.
• ✓Clear gutters of the last of the leaf fall before spring rain.

The first workable weather. Winter has finished doing its damage and you can finally see all of it in decent light.

• ✓Walk the outside of the house: cracked render, failed pointing, blocked airbricks, blown window seals.
• ✓Check fascias, soffits and downpipes for splits.
• ✓Test outside taps and garden electrics before you need them.

The NI building season opens. Every good builder, roofer and joiner starts filling their diary for the summer, and the best ones fill first.

• ✓Clear gutters and downpipes of winter debris.
• ✓Check the driveway and paths for frost damage.
• ✓Service or replace exterior door and window seals.

Typically one of the drier months of the NI year, and the work that genuinely needs dry weather has a short window to get done in.

• ✓Inspect the roof properly now that it is safe and dry to do so.
• ✓Check chimney stacks and flashing.
• ✓Look at the render and pointing on the weather-facing wall, usually the one facing south-west here.

Peak outdoor season, and the longest working days of the year. Big projects run at their fastest and cleanest right now.

• ✓Check decking, patios and fencing for rot at ground contact.
• ✓Look at fascias and soffits for signs of nesting or rot.
• ✓Test the heating system briefly even though you do not need it, so a fault is found now rather than in October.

The quiet, sensible month. Nobody is thinking about heating, which is exactly why this is the cheapest and easiest time to sort it.

• ✓Get into the loft and check insulation depth and coverage.
• ✓Look at the hot water cylinder jacket and pipe lagging.
• ✓Check the oil tank for rust, splits, a sound base and a working gauge.

The last reliable dry window, and the month to get ahead of everyone else. Heating demand is about to arrive and almost nobody has acted on it yet.

• ✓Clear gutters and downpipes before the autumn rain returns.
• ✓Check the roof and flashing while it is dry enough to do safely.
• ✓Run the heating for an hour and listen for anything that is not right.

Heating season begins. The first cold week of the year is when every dormant heating fault announces itself at once, and every engineer gets busy on the same day.

• ✓Fire up the heating properly before you depend on it.
• ✓Bleed radiators and check for cold spots.
• ✓Check that carbon monoxide and smoke alarms work. Test, do not assume.
• ✓Clear gutters again as the leaves start.

Atlantic storm season gets going, roughly October through February. Wind and rain find every weakness the summer let you ignore.

• ✓Roof, ridge, flashing and chimney, checked from the ground before the first big blow.
• ✓Gutters and downpipes clear, and running to a working drain.
• ✓Trees and branches close to the house or the power line.
• ✓Fences, gates and anything in the garden that can become a projectile.

Condensation season. Warm damp air, cold surfaces and closed windows: mould appears on bedroom walls, around windows and behind furniture.

• ✓Look behind wardrobes and beds on external walls, and in the corners of bathrooms.
• ✓Check that extractor fans actually extract, kitchen and bathroom both.
• ✓Clear gutters a final time after the leaves are down.
• ✓Check window seals and trickle vents.

Cold, dark, and the month houses sit empty for days at a time. Nearly all December damage is either freezing or something small that nobody was home to notice.

• ✓Pipe lagging in the loft, garage and any outbuilding.
• ✓Heating left on low if you are away, not switched off.
• ✓Stopcock located and working, and somebody nearby with a key.
• ✓Oil level checked before the holidays, not during them.

An annual heating service, booked in late summer. Oil by an OFTEC-registered engineer, gas by a Gas Safe registered engineer. It is usually a warranty condition, it catches faults while they are cheap, and on gas and oil appliances it is a safety check, not a nicety. Our boiler service cost guide covers what it should cost and what has to be included.

Working smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Tested, not assumed. Any fuel-burning appliance in the house means a CO alarm is not optional.

Gutters cleared twice a year. Spring and late autumn. Blocked gutters are the most common cause of damp walls in this climate, and it is the cheapest job on the entire list.

A look at the roof before storm season. From the ground, with binoculars, in October. You are looking for slipped slates, lifted ridge tiles and damaged flashing. Never go up yourself.