Fall Exterior Cleaning Checklist for Northeast Connecticut Homes

Fall is the busiest stretch of the year for exterior work in the Quiet Corner, and the window is short. From the first week of September to the first hard freeze you get roughly ten weeks of workable weather, and several of these jobs stop being possible once the nights stay below freezing.

The order matters as much as the list. Some of this work has to happen while it is still warm. Some of it cannot happen until the leaves are down. And one job has to go before another on the same roofline. Here is how we sequence a full fall on a house in Northeast Connecticut.

Why the order matters

Two rules pull against each other in the fall.

The first is the top down rule. Everything you clean drains onto whatever sits below it, so the roof comes before the siding, the siding before the glass, and the hardscape last. That is the standard sequence for a full exterior house cleaning.

The second is the calendar. Soft wash detergent does its work best in mild air and slows as the temperature drops toward freezing. Gutters cannot be finished until the oaks and maples are done dropping, which here means late October into November. Those two rules point in opposite directions, and the calendar wins.

So a fall schedule is not one clean top down pass. It is warm weather work first, leaf dependent work second, and lights last. The one hard rule inside all of that: gutters before lights, because they share a roofline.

September: the roof, then the house wash

Start at the top while it is warm. Black streaks on north facing shingles are a living algae that spreads as long as the roof holds moisture. Fall is a good time to deal with it, because the roof will spend the next five months damp and shaded. Roof cleaning is soft wash only, low pressure and the right detergent, because pressure strips the granules off asphalt shingles. Most single family roofs run $400 to $750, with around $300 for a small ranch and $900 to $1,500 for a large steep roof that is badly stained. The breakdown is in our roof cleaning cost guide.

The house wash follows immediately, because the roof just sent dead algae and grit down the walls. A fall wash matters more than people think. Pollen, road film, and the green algae that builds on shaded north walls sit there all winter under snow and ice, and organic growth does not stop because it is cold. Wash before you close the house up and you are not looking at a stained wall in March, when it is too cold to fix.

A house wash covers every side, plus soffits, fascia, trim, shutters, and the outside faces of the gutters. Pricing starts at $389 for a single story cape or ranch, runs $475 to $575 for a two story colonial, and goes $550 and up for larger homes. More detail is in our house washing cost guide.

Late September into October: windows

Windows go after the house wash, never before. A wash puts detergent and runoff on the glass, and it wants doing again afterward no matter how carefully anyone rinses. Cleaning windows first is money spent twice.

The other reason to do windows in the fall is the heating season. Once the furnace or the woodstove is running and the storms are on, the inside of the glass picks up a film of dust and combustion residue that you will look through until spring. Clean the interior side before that starts and you get a clear view through the darkest months of the year.

Window cleaning is $8 per pane with a $200 minimum, exterior only or inside and out. Pane count drives the price far more than house size does, and older homes here often have several times the panes of a modern build. The full explanation is in our window cleaning cost guide.

If you put storm windows on for the winter, clean the glass first. Once a storm is installed, reaching the outside face of the primary sash means taking it back off.

October: deck, patio, driveway, and fence

Ground level surfaces get cleaned after the work above them, and before the snow. Wet leaves left on a deck through the winter stain the boards, and those tannin marks are much harder to remove in April than the leaves are in October. Algae and moss in paver joints and on shaded concrete keep growing under snow cover.

Deck and patio cleaning takes a different approach on each surface. Wood and composite get detergent and a gentle rinse, because pressure furs up wood grain and marks composite. Pavers get controlled pressure and re-sanded joints.

Driveway and concrete cleaning runs $150 to $400 depending on size and staining. If you have a paver patio, fall is also the time for paver sealing at $2.25 per square foot, since sealing needs a clean, dry surface and a run of mild days. Fence cleaning belongs in the same visit, because a fence grows the same green film the north side of the house does.

Late October into November: gutters

This is the one job you cannot rush, because it depends on the trees rather than on you. Cleaning gutters in early October on a property with mature oaks means doing it again in November. Oaks here hold their leaves late, and a heavy wind in the first week of November can fill a clean gutter in an afternoon.

Wait until the drop is finished, then get it done before the first hard freeze. Water that cannot move freezes in the trough, and ice in a clogged gutter is what pulls fascia loose and pushes water back under the shingle edge.

A proper gutter cleaning means every section cleaned by hand, debris bagged and hauled off rather than dumped in your beds, and every downspout flushed and confirmed running. That runs $175 to $325 for most homes. For how many times a year your property needs it, our post on how often to clean gutters in New England breaks it down by tree cover.

November and December: holiday lights, last

Lights go on after the gutters are clear. Light clips sit on the same shingle edge and gutter lip that a gutter cleaning needs access to. If the lights go up first, clearing a blocked downspout in December means pulling a section of the display, working around it in the cold, and putting it back.

Getting on the install calendar is a separate question from when the lights go up, and worth thinking about earlier than most people do. More on that in our post on when to book Christmas light installation. Professional Christmas light installation runs $600 to $1,400 for the season, and what moves that number is in our Christmas light cost guide.

If you would rather stop doing the seasonal version, permanent outdoor lighting is a fixed track of individually controllable LEDs mounted under the eave at $42 per linear foot. It stays up year round and disappears against the trim in daylight.

The short version

• September: roof, then house wash, while the air is mild
• Late September into October: windows, after the wash and before the storms go on
• October: deck, patio, driveway, fence, paver sealing
• Late October into November: gutters, once the leaves are genuinely finished
• November into December: lights, after the gutters are clear

You do not have to do all of it in one year. If you are picking two, make them the gutters and the roof, because those are the two that turn into structural problems. If you are picking three, add the house wash.

Booking a fall visit

Applewood Exterior Cleaning is based in Pomfret and works across Northeast Connecticut, Worcester County in Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Check your town on our service areas page, and see the rest of what we do on our residential services page.

If you want more than one of these, tell us the whole list up front. We will sequence it correctly and quote each piece separately, so you can drop anything you would rather leave until spring. Text a photo of the front of the house to (860) 553-9326, or send the details through our contact page.