Fall Home Maintenance Checklist: 5 Austin Exterior Checks

Short answer: Daylight saving time ended at 2 a.m. today, November 1, 2026. Austin’s sunset moved from 6:44 p.m. yesterday to 5:43 p.m. today, so after-work daylight is gone for the season. Use this weekend’s light for five exterior checks, each about an hour: clear gutters after the fall leaf drop, shut down outdoor faucets and sprinklers before the first freeze, look at limbs over the roof, check where downspouts dump water, and clear vents and test smoke alarms.

What to do

Check	About how long	You need	Call a pro if
1. Gutters and downspouts after leaf drop	1 hour, one-story	Gloves, bucket, hose, a ladder only on a one-story eave	It’s a second story, or gutters sag or leak at seams
2. Hose bibs, sprinklers, backflow	30-60 min	Foam faucet covers, sprinkler controller	You can’t find the main shutoff or the backflow assembly
3. Tree limbs over the roof	20 min to look	Binoculars, phone camera	Any limb needs cutting over the roof or near lines
4. Downspout discharge and grading	1 hour	String, line level, tape measure, hose	Water flows toward the slab or onto a neighbor
5. Vents and smoke alarms	30 min	Flashlight, step stool	Vents are blocked from the attic side or nested

Sunrise today is 6:45 a.m., sunset 5:43 p.m., and civil twilight ends at 6:08 p.m. (U.S. Naval Observatory, downtown Austin). Anything involving a ladder should be finished well before dusk.

Check 1: Gutters and downspouts after the leaf drop

In spring, Austin’s live oaks drop leaves and tassels. In fall it’s cedar elms, pecans and other trees. Small cedar elm leaves, pecan leaflets and twigs all end up in the same places: the gutter outlets and the downspout elbows.

From the ground first:

Look for plants growing in the gutter, or leaves sticking up above the lip.
Look for dark streaks or drip lines on the fascia and siding. Those mean water is going over or behind the gutter.
Run a hose into each gutter run, or watch during the next rain. Water should come out the bottom of every downspout, not spill over the middle of a run.

If you clean a one-story run yourself: scoop by hand into a bucket, then flush each downspout with the hose. OSHA’s ladder rule for workers is a useful benchmark at home: set the base out about one-quarter of the ladder’s working length, and if you’re stepping onto a roof, the rails should extend at least 3 feet above the edge. Leave second-story gutters to someone with the equipment.

Timing: there’s no fixed cleaning date that works for every Austin yard. It depends on your trees, roof and storms. If leaves are still falling today, treat this as a check and plan the real cleaning once most are down. Rain doesn’t stop either. Camp Mabry’s normal is 3.91 inches for October and 2.92 inches for November. See gutter cleaning, and gutter repair if you find sags or leaking seams.

Check 2: Hose bibs, sprinklers and backflow (before the first freeze)

Austin freezes aren’t frequent, but they happen. The National Weather Service’s normals table for Camp Mabry lists, on average, 11.9 days a year with a low at or below 32°F: about 0.8 in November, 3.4 in December, 4.7 in January, 2.3 in February and 0.7 in March. Those are days with a freezing low, not separate freeze events, and they don’t tell you the date of the first freeze. NWS keeps a separate record for the Bergstrom airport station, and the two don’t have to match. Your yard may run colder or warmer than either. More in our upcoming post on Austin’s first freeze.

What Austin Water recommends before freezing weather:

Turn off outside faucets and remove hoses.
Insulate outdoor faucets with a foam faucet cover or towels.
Turn off and drain automatic sprinkler systems for winter.
Find your water shutoff and make sure it isn’t buried or blocked. Austin Water says to try your own (property owner’s) shutoff valve first. If you can’t find it or it’s damaged, use the City valve in the meter box, which may take a meter key from a hardware store.

Backflow assembly: if you have an irrigation system, it has a backflow prevention assembly, often above ground near the house or meter. Austin Water says freeze protection keeps above-ground assemblies from being damaged in cold weather. Irrigation assemblies also have annual testing requirements, done by a tester licensed by TCEQ and registered with Austin Water. Ask your tester how to protect yours rather than improvising. If your water comes from a different utility or a MUD, check its rules instead.

Rain barrels get their own post: winterize your rain barrel.

Check 3: Tree limbs over the roof

Walk around the house and look up. You’re looking for:

Limbs touching or resting on the roof. They scrape shingles and feed leaves straight into gutters.
Dead or cracked limbs hanging over the roof, driveway or power lines.
Branches within reach of the gutter line that will sag when wet or iced.

The January 30 to February 2, 2023 ice storm brought limbs down across Austin, bending and tearing gutters off fascia. That’s the failure you’re trying to prevent.

Why now is the time to plan oak work: Texas A&M Forest Service says not to prune or wound oaks February through June, to reduce the spread of oak wilt. It also says to paint fresh oak wounds at any time of year, and any paint works. November through January sits outside that February-to-June window. That lowers the risk; it doesn’t remove it. Don’t diagnose oak wilt from leaf drop, and don’t put off an urgent hazard limb. Call an arborist.

City rules: on residential property in Austin, trees under 19 inches in diameter (measured at 4.5 feet up) aren’t regulated. For larger regulated trees, pruning 25% or more of the canopy needs a Tree Ordinance Review Application. Ask your arborist whether your job comes near that line. Other cities have their own rules.

For the full tree checklist, see our upcoming post on trimming trees before winter.

Check 4: Where your downspouts dump water

This check matters most east of I-35, where expansive clay is common. On the thin soils and limestone of the west side, the same water runs fast downhill and erodes beds and paths.

Step 1: follow each downspout. Building-science guidance from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) says:

Carry roof water at least 5 feet from the building, or at least 10 feet if it goes to an underground catchment.
End the pipe on ground that slopes away from the house, with a splash block to control erosion.
Never connect a downspout to the perforated foundation drain at the footing. PNNL says this soaks the foundation.

Step 2: check the slope with a string. Tie a string at the foundation, run it 10 feet straight out, level it with a line level, and measure from the string down to the ground at the far end.

PNNL reports that the 2009 to 2015 editions of the International Residential Code call for paved surfaces within 10 feet to slope 2% away. That’s 2% of 120 inches, a 2.4-inch drop.
PNNL also reports the ENERGY STAR guideline for soil and planting beds: at least half an inch per foot for 10 feet, a 5-inch drop.

If the ground at 10 feet is level with, or higher than, the ground at the wall, water is being sent back toward the slab. Austin’s adopted code and your lot can differ, so treat these as benchmarks, not a code ruling.

Step 3: run a hose into the gutter above each downspout for a few minutes and watch where the water ends up.

And don’t aim it at the neighbors. Texas Water Code §11.086 addresses damage caused by diverting surface water onto another property. It isn’t a rule against every drop crossing a line, but a downspout pointed at the fence is asking for trouble. See downspouts and drainage.

Check 5: Vents and smoke alarms

Outside: walk the eaves and look at soffit vents, gable vents and roof vents. You’re looking for vents painted shut, screens torn open by animals, wasp or bird nests, and dryer-vent flaps that are stuck open or packed with lint. Blocked vents cut attic airflow, and torn screens let animals in. Fix screens from the ground or a short step stool. Leave anything at roof height to a pro.

Inside, two minutes: the clock change is an easy reminder for alarms. The U.S. Fire Administration says to test smoke alarms monthly and replace 9-volt batteries at least once a year. Replace the whole alarm every 10 years from the manufacture date printed on it. Sealed 10-year alarms get replaced according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

FAQ

Did the clocks change last night or tonight?

This morning. Daylight saving time ended at 2:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, November 1, 2026, when clocks went back to 1:00 a.m. Most phones changed automatically. Wall clocks, ovens and sprinkler controllers may not have.

When should I clean my gutters before winter in Austin?

After most of the fall leaves are down, and before winter storms. Under cedar elms and pecans, that often means a check now and a cleaning later in the season. There’s no single date that fits every yard. Check our FAQ for how often to clean.

When should I trim oak trees in Texas?

Texas A&M Forest Service says to avoid pruning or wounding oaks from February through June because of oak wilt, and to paint fresh wounds year-round. That makes late fall and winter the lower-risk period. Hire an arborist for anything over the roof.

How far should downspouts drain from the house?

PNNL’s building-science guidance says at least 5 feet from the building, onto ground that slopes away, or at least 10 feet to an underground catchment. Never into the perforated foundation drain. Your local code and lot conditions can call for more.

Do I need to winterize outdoor faucets in Austin?

Yes, before freezing weather. Camp Mabry averages about a dozen days a year with a low at or below freezing. Austin Water recommends disconnecting hoses, turning off and insulating outside faucets, and draining sprinkler systems.

Sources

Request a gutter estimate. We check every run, the downspout outlets and where each one discharges, and we’ll tell you if a cleaning or a small fix is all the house needs.

The Clocks Changed Today: 5 Exterior Checks Before Winter in Austin