Four-season cottage: a month-by-month maintenance calendar

A four-season cottage doesn’t take more work than a house in the city. It takes work at different times — and often when you’re not there.

This calendar doesn’t replace your tradespeople’s advice or your appliance manuals. It’s there so nothing slips from one season to the next. Print it, tape it inside the front closet, and adapt it to your place.

The calendar, month by month

January

• Look at the roof edge from the ground: ice dams, big icicles over doors.
• Keep wall exhaust vents clear of snow (furnace, water heater, dryer, air exchanger).
• Read the propane or oil gauge and confirm the next delivery.
• After the holidays, test the smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms.

February

• Keep an eye on snow building up on the roof, the deck, and above the propane tank or electric meter.
• Have the roof cleared by an equipped contractor if the load worries you — never do it yourself.
• Keep access to the tank and driveway clear for a delivery driver or plumber.

March

• At the first thaw, look at the downspouts: ice at the outlet, water running back toward the house.
• Check the sump pump: plugged in, float moving freely, water level in the pit.
• Look at the basement floor and lower walls after every big melt.

April

• Opening the cottage: water turned back on by your plumber if the house was drained.
• Walk around for winter damage: roof seen from the ground, gutters, fences, fallen trees.
• Look for signs of mice in cupboards and along baseboards.
• Check the driveway: ruts, washouts, a culvert blocked after the melt.

May

• Have your well water tested: the Québec government recommends regular testing of private well water; see Québec.ca for how often and what to test for.
• Find the septic tank lid and note when it was last pumped.
• Look at the foundation and the drainage around the house.
• Turn the outdoor taps back on.

June

• Start the basement dehumidifier if you have one, and check its drain.
• Look at screens, soffits and under the deck: wasp nests, new holes.
• Trim back plants touching the siding.

July

• Follow the basement hygrometer’s trend from visit to visit.
• After a violent thunderstorm, check the power, appliance clocks and trees near the house.
• Look at top-floor ceilings after heavy rain.

August

• Book the fall trades: plumber for closing, heating service, chimney sweep, roofer.
• Schedule septic pumping if it’s due.
• Get your questions ready for your broker before winter.

September

• Walk around the roof and gutters from the ground.
• Test the sump pump with a bucket of water.
• Plug rodent entry points around the foundation and soffits.
• Sign the snow-clearing contract and confirm fuel.

October

• Clean the gutters once the leaves are down.
• Shut off and drain outdoor taps, put hoses away.
• Get the cottage closed, or the heating serviced if it stays heated.
• Clear the pantry of anything that draws mice.

November

• Test the heat on your last stay and note the setting.
• Look at trees near the roof and the electrical service wire.
• Arrange mail, deliveries and winter visits.

December

• Before the holidays: exhaust vents clear, alarms tested, main shut-off located.
• Update the contact list left at the cottage.
• Leave a thermometer in the coldest room.

Why a calendar made for the Townships

Winter isn’t one block. In Brome-Missisquoi, thaws and cold snaps take turns. So the calendar comes back to the roof, gutters and basement several times, not once.

The melt comes all at once. In spring, snow from the mountainsides runs down toward the sloped lots of Sutton, Abercorn or Potton. That’s when a dead sump pump or a frozen downspout gets noticed.

Cottages run their own infrastructure. Well, septic, private road, propane tank: things a city takes care of that you take care of here.

The trades are busy at the same times. Booking in August and September saves you hunting for a plumber in the middle of closing season.

What you can do, and what belongs to the trades

What an owner can do: anything you can see from the ground or from inside, simple tests (sump pump, alarms), putting things away, bookings, and keeping a maintenance log.

What belongs to licensed trades:

• Plumbing: closing, opening, repairs (RBQ-licensed plumber).
• Electrical: any work on the panel or circuits (master electrician).
• Roof and chimney: repairs, sweeping, roof snow clearing.
• Septic: pumping by a specialized company.
• Trees near power lines: Hydro-Québec or a qualified arborist.

You can check a contractor’s licence in the Régie du bâtiment du Québec registry.

In an empty house, how long before anyone notices?

A calendar works when someone follows it. If you’re up every weekend, you’ll catch most things in time. If the cottage sits alone for long stretches, every line on the calendar waits for you to get back, and a problem that starts between stays has all that time to get worse.

How often someone stops by sets the maximum length of any damage.

What we look at on a visit

Every visit, we look at the snow and ice along the roof edge, the gutters and downspouts, the sump pump (level, float, plug), the basement hygrometer reading to follow the trend, the indicator lights on the smoke and carbon-monoxide alarms, and, outside, the soffits, the bottom of the siding and the foundation for signs of rodents. Every finding is photographed and time-stamped in the report, which builds you a maintenance log across the seasons.

If something’s off, we call you the same day, with photos. If needed, we meet an RBQ-licensed tradesperson on site and document the work.