Spring + summer prep — five things to do before May.

We get our biggest call volume between mid-June and Labor Day. Most of it is preventable. After eleven years on the lawn + handyman side, here are the five spring-prep jobs we’d ask everyone to do before May. They’re not glamorous; they’re just the ones that move the needle.

1. Clean the gutters before the first big storm

This is the one. Clogged gutters during a heavy April rain are the cause of about 30% of the ‘water on my ceiling’ calls we get in June. The water’s been there since spring; you just couldn’t see it until the drywall gave up. 90 minutes with a ladder + a bucket. If you’re not comfortable on a ladder, this is $125 with us; we’ll do it Tuesday.

2. Re-caulk the bathtub + kitchen sink

Caulk lasts about 5 years. Most of us forget. The black mould you’re seeing on the corner of the tub isn’t a cleaning problem; it’s old caulk. Strip it, dry the gap fully (24 hours), re-caulk with a mildew-resistant kitchen-and-bath silicone. $14 of materials. Or call us — $145 for both rooms.

3. Service the AC before the first 90° day

HVAC techs are slammed in July. The 30-minute service in April that costs $120 becomes a 4-day wait in July. Change the filter, check the outdoor coil isn’t clogged with leaves, run the unit in cooling mode for 15 minutes and listen. If anything sounds wrong, call now, not in July.

4. Walk the lot for trip hazards

Heaving paving stones, raised tree roots, the loose porch step you’ve meant to fix since last fall. Frost cycles move things. Spring is when you find what shifted. Most are 30-minute fixes for our handyman team; all of them become a problem when you’re hosting a barbecue in August.

5. Mulch around trees + beds, not against trunks

Volcano mulching kills more trees than disease in a residential yard. Mulch in a doughnut, not a cone. 2–3 inches deep, pulled back from the trunk. If you’ve been piling it against the bark, the tree is suffocating; pull it back this weekend.

The honest take

You can hire us for any of these. They’re also all things you can do yourself with a Saturday afternoon and a hardware-store run. We’d rather you do them than not do them. The summer calls we hate getting are the ones that started with ‘I knew I should have done X in April.’

If you’d rather hand the list off, the ‘spring prep package’ (gutters + caulk + AC check + walk-around) is $385 flat. Books up by mid-March most years.

— Reza