The Exterior Year, Month By Month

Everything outside a building here is scheduled around one fact: roughly three quarters of the year's precipitation arrives between October and March. The Environment and Climate Change Canada climate normals put Vancouver International Airport near 1,189 mm a year, with November and December the two heaviest months on the record and July by far the driest.

That is not a mild seasonal skew. It means the work that has to happen dry has a genuinely short window, and the work that protects against water has a hard deadline. A checklist ignores both. A calendar is the same list with the timing that makes it work.

The catch-up months. Everything the winter did is visible and the weather is workable again.

• Roof moss treatment, after the growth flush. Treated now it has the dry season to release.
• Gutters, clearing whatever the winter storms put in after the autumn visit.
• Windows, weighted here rather than to autumn — this is the visit that takes off the winter's film and salt.
• Hard surfaces: walkways, patios and driveways washed of the moss and traffic film that built up through the wet months.
• A walk of the perimeter drains before anyone forgets about them for six months.

The only reliable dry window, and therefore the only sensible slot for anything that has to cure.

• Concrete and asphalt sealing. This needs consecutive dry days on both sides of the application and there is no other season that reliably supplies them.
• Exterior painting, for the same reason and with the same constraint.
• Soft washing of siding, stucco and cedar, where the surface needs to dry properly afterwards.
• Anything needing an elevated platform, while the ground is firm and the weather is predictable.

The most important stretch of the year, and the one most often mistimed.

1. 01Early September: book the autumn gutter clean now, for later. The booking happens in September; the visit should not.
2. 02Late September into early October: the last practical window for anything that needs dry weather. Sealing, painting and exterior repairs close here.
3. 03Late October into November: the gutter clean itself, after the bulk of the drop rather than at the start of it. This is the single most valuable visit of the year.
4. 04November: agree the winter arrangement — who clears, at what trigger, and by when. Before it snows, not during.

The second item and the third are the ones that get collapsed into one visit in early October, which is how a property ends up with clear gutters in the middle of the leaf drop and full ones through the rain.

Reactive rather than scheduled, with two exceptions.

• Snow clearing and salting to whatever trigger was agreed in November, on the municipal deadline that applies to the frontage.
• Holiday lighting, installed before the weather closes in and serviced through the season rather than left to fail.
• A check of the downspouts and drains during the first real storm — this is the one time of year the system can be observed under load, and a dry downspout in heavy rain tells you exactly where the blockage is.

The third one costs nothing and is the best diagnostic available all year. It only works while it is raining, which is why it never gets scheduled.

What is the single most important job on this list?

The late-autumn gutter clean, timed after the bulk of the leaf drop. It is the one visit that determines whether water goes down the downspout or down the wall through the wettest eight weeks of the year.

When should exterior painting and sealing be booked?

Between late spring and early autumn, and inside that on a run of dry days rather than on a date. Both need dry going on and dry while curing, which this region supplies reliably only in summer.

Is winter a dead season for exterior work?

For anything requiring cure or dry surfaces, largely yes. Snow clearing, salting, lighting service and storm-driven drainage problems are what actually happens between December and February.

When is the best time to treat roof moss?

Spring after the growth flush, or early autumn before the sustained rain. Both give the treatment dry working days, and both leave the roof clear going into the season that follows.

How far ahead should this be booked?

The autumn work is worth arranging in late summer, because the useful weeks in October and November are narrow and everyone wants the same ones. Booking early does not move the visit earlier — it makes sure the visit lands in the right week.

Everything above has its own page: gutters, roof moss, windows, sealing, painting, snow and salting and holiday lighting. We work across nine Greater Vancouver communities.