Summer Maintenance Home Security and Safety Checklist

The smell of summer air is upon us! As we prepare for warm nights and warmer days, inspecting your home and making sure it’s ready for summer is crucial for home safety and security. While it may be easy to take a relaxed approach for summer, tackling your home maintenance early will result in a peace of mind that your home is safe for summer activities and seasonal changes.

We’ve gathered our top 10 items for a summer repair and home maintenance checklist for strong home security and safety.

Wash your windows

Fly away pollen or dust could be collecting in your home after April and May’s flower bloom. Cleaning your windows will bring in more sunlight to your home as you’re removing any dust that can be blocking the sweet air.

Inspect your wireless outdoor camera and wireless doorbell camera

A habit to keep up each season is to check your wireless security cameras to ensure they are working properly and charged. During the summer, vacation getaways are at your fingertips and it’s easy to act first on booking your vacation plans. Before you’re finding deals on hotels and plane tickets, making sure your home is properly prepared for any vacation should be your first step.

• Check your wireless outdoor security camera batteries to ensure they are charged
• Check the settings through the smart phone app (like Toucan Smart Home app) to ensure the motion detection sensitivity and notifications are at your preference
• Clean the lens and any dust around the camera.

With a new season, you might see new areas around your home that you want your outdoor cameras to capture. For example – if you are spending more time in the backyard or by the grill, this would be a great place to add some wifi cameras.

Have your air conditioner checked and serviced

The last thing that you would want to be this summer is uncomfortable in the heat! Check to ensure your air conditioning to properly working and get it serviced if need to. Having your air conditioner properly checked can also ensure there is no wiring or mechanical issues that could result in power outage or in more extreme cases – a house fire. If everything is looking good, make sure to change your filter for the new season.

Clean your outdoor cooking space

The summer brings a favorite activity among many people – grilling! As you’re preparing for the summer cookouts, make sure your grill is properly cleaned to ensure a safe barbeque. From 2014 to 2018, 10,600 grill fires occurred each year on average. 29% of the homes reporting a house fire said their grill had not been cleaned. Depending on which kind of grill you have, follow the directions below to clean your grill.

For charcoal grills:

• Clean grill grates with a long handled stiff wire brush
• Clean the inside of the grilling bowl and lid with mild dish soap and a steel brush
• Clean the outside of the lid and bowl using soap and water or grill cleaner and towel dry

For gas grills:

• Pre-heat the grill for 15 minutes on high then turn off the grill
• Clean the grill using a steel wire brush dipped in water
• For tough grease spots, add dish soap to the water or a grill cleaner
• Once the surface is cooled, wipe the grate with a damp cloth to remove residue
• Remove burners from the gas supply line and remove blockages to the burner’s gas ports using a dry wire brush. Clean the ports by brushing side-to-side instead of up-and-down
• Clean the burner valve with soapy water and run water through the inside of the valve.  
• Clean the inside of the grill using a wire brush and warm soapy water and rinse with water. Towel dry the burners and reinstall.  

Stepping away from the grill can be dangerous even just for a few moments. Having an outdoor camera that you can access from your smart phone like the Toucan Wireless Outdoor Camera allows you to keep an eye on it while you're waiting for the items to cook.

Inspect deck for damages

If you have a deck in your backyard where people gather in the summer, make sure it’s safe by giving it an annual deck inspection. If this is a space you relax in regularly with children, consider installing outdoor wifi cameras near this area as well for the safety of everyone involved.

Inspecting your deck:

• Check for rot
• Check the ledger – the framing material that attaches the deck to your house
• No holes or rust
• Inspect joists and beams for rot or rust
• Check for cracks in decking boards
• Inspect the railing system

Clean out any gutters from spring storms

April showers brought May flowers but also brought some leaves in your pipes. If you had spring storms and/or summer storms coming your way, having a clean gutter will help control the flow of rainwater from the rooflines. Cleaning out this area will help protect your home’s roof, walls, foundation and landscape.

To avoid mold growth, wet basements or water damage – clean out these debris to ensure your home is safe from damages.

Inspect outdoor play equipment

If you have little ones who will be playing in your backyard, ensure that the play equipment does not have any damages that could cause harm including:

• Making sure bolts are in place
• No protruding objects with sharp or awkward edges
• Check wooden equipment for splintering or cracking
• Check metal equipment for rust
• Materials should be durable and resistant to weathering and abuse
• Observe is a part is loose or broken

Having play equipment in the backyard is fun for everyone. If you will be in the area often, install a wireless security camera near this equipment so you are able to monitor their activity and kids. The Toucan Wireless Outdoor Camera allows users to view their camera on their smartphone wherever they are, 24/7 so you can monitor kids on the play equipment when you need to step inside and away from the play area.

Add a security camera to your backyard when kids are in the pool

Having a pool is very fun for the summer but you need to make sure the area is safe to properly enjoy all that it offers. We have a list of pool safety measures on our blog to implement into the summer with ideas on pool safety. When it comes to summer maintenance and security, add a wireless outdoor camera near this area to monitor if you need to step away into the kitchen so you can monitor the area through your Alexa Echo Show, Google Home or the Toucan Smart Home app on your phone.

Inspect your fencing

Winter and spring storms have presented themselves as a constant problem for homeowners. Look over the following areas with:

• Separation of Posts
  • Misalignment or department can cause functionality and safety issues when it comes to children or pets as well as unwanted
• Unstable bases
• Cracks, rotting and rusting

Staying on top of your fencing and monitoring it per season is crucial when it comes to your home safety. Children, pets and intruders can maneuver through any breaks and cracks in fencing.

Get your landscaping under control

Trimming and pruning plants and trees are necessary them to stay in control and continue growing properly in their space.  In addition, keeping up your landscaping is essential for summer vacationing to make your home look occupied to deter any intruders If you are taking a trip during the summer, having any overgrown grass or hedgers may single to onlookers that the home is vacant.

Explore more tips of trimming landscaping and vacationing here.