Your Westchester Spring Home Checklist
After all these years working on homes from Bronxville to Bedford, I can tell you spring in Westchester hits different than anywhere else. We don’t just shake off a little chill — we come out the other side of nor’easters, ice dams, salt trucks, and one too many freeze-thaw cycles. The houses around here show every bit of it. So before the dogwoods bloom and you fire up the grill, take a walk around your property with me. Here’s what I tell my own neighbors to check every March and April.
Most of the calls I get in May start with, “George, my ceiling has a brown spot.” Nine times out of ten, it traces right back to a gutter nobody touched after the leaves fell. After a Westchester winter, you’ve got compacted oak leaves, pine needles, twigs, and salt grit sitting in there like wet cement — pulling fascia loose, rotting soffits, and sending water straight back into your foundation.
Get up there (or call somebody who will) and look for:
Gutters still pitched correctly toward the downspouts
Seams that are holding tight, with no green streaks running down the siding
Downspouts kicking water at least four feet away from the house
If you’ve got a 1920s colonial in Pelham or a stone Tudor in Scarsdale, this matters even more. Older foundations don’t forgive standing water.
You don’t need to climb a ladder. Grab your phone, zoom in, and walk the perimeter. After the wind we had this past winter, I’d bet good money some of you are missing shingles and don’t know it yet. Look for:
Dark patches or curling on the south-facing slopes
Bent or missing flashing around chimneys and skylights
Daylight peeking through any soffit vents
If you had ice dams this winter — and plenty of folks in Chappaqua, Mount Kisco, and Yorktown did — there’s a good chance the underlayment took a beating. Get a roofer up there before the May rains.
Westchester ground heaves. Plain and simple. Between the freeze-thaw cycles and our clay-heavy soil, every spring something shifts. Look for:
Fresh cracks in the foundation, especially near downspout exits
Frost heaves in walkways and Belgian block edging
Potholes and alligator cracking in the asphalt (a Northern Westchester rite of spring)
Westchester ground heaves. Plain and simple. Between the freeze-thaw cycles and our clay-heavy soil, every spring something shifts. Look for:
Our humidity swings are rough on exterior wood. If your deck went two seasons without a fresh coat of stain, it’s overdue. Same goes for window trim, garage door frames, and that pergola the previous owner left you. Press a screwdriver into any wood that looks suspect — if the tip sinks in, you’ve got rot, and rot brings carpenter ants right behind it.
Yes, we have termites in Westchester. More than people think. They swarm in spring, usually right after a warm rain. If you spot a small pile of clear, discarded wings on a windowsill or near a foundation crack, that’s not a coincidence — that’s a swarm. Call a licensed pest control company the same day. Waiting costs real money.
I’m no exterminator, but I’ve pulled enough ticks off myself working in tall grass around Bedford and Pound Ridge to know better than to ignore them. Lyme is endemic here. Before the grass takes off:
Get your yard treated by a licensed company
Clear leaf litter from the perimeter
Lay down a wood-chip barrier between the lawn and the woods if you back up to trees
Geysers from cracked lines
Broken or buried heads
Any sprinkler aimed at the house, especially the windows or clapboard
A misaimed head will soak a wall and you won’t catch it until the paint starts to blister.
Our pollen season is no picnic, but a fresh breeze through the house is worth it. Check every screen for tears — even pinhole-sized. Mosquitoes find them. And while you’re at the windows, take a peek at the storm window weep holes. When they pack up with debris, water pools in the sash and the sill rots from the bottom up.
Every HVAC company in the county is booked solid by mid-June. Schedule that tune-up now. Change the filter, clear leaves and stick debris from around the condenser, and make sure nothing’s grown into the unit over the winter — vines and bittersweet will wreck a coil before you know it.
After the snowmelt and April showers, take a slow walk around your property. Anywhere water sits for more than a day or two is a mosquito factory and a foundation problem waiting to happen. Tip out planters, kids’ toys, tarps, wheelbarrows, anything that holds rain. If a low spot in the yard keeps pooling up, that’s a grading or drainage conversation — and one I’m happy to have if you give me a call.
A house in Westchester takes care of you if you take care of it. None of this work is glamorous, but spending a Saturday or two on this list every spring will save you five-figure repairs down the road. And if you spot anything gutter-related you’d rather not handle yourself — well, you know who to call.
