Spring in Washington does two jobs. It reveals what winter did, and it gives you a window to fix it before the trades get busy.
Look for winter damage
Walk the outside of the house. Missing or lifted shingles from wind. Damaged flashing. Fascia boards that have softened where gutters overflowed. Siding that has come loose. Cracked caulking around openings.
East of the Cascades, look specifically for freeze-thaw damage — cracks in driveways, walkways, steps and masonry that have opened over the winter. Water gets into small cracks, freezes, expands and widens them, and each winter makes the previous winter’s damage worse.
Check drainage while you can still see it
This is the spring task most worth doing and most often skipped, because it needs to happen while the ground is still wet.
Go out during rain and watch where water actually goes. Are gutters overflowing anywhere? Are downspouts discharging away from the house or pooling at the wall? Is water standing anywhere near the foundation? Does the ground slope away from the house or toward it?
In July everything looks fine. In March the problems are visible, and that is when to identify them even if the work happens later.
Moss
Western Washington’s roofs come out of winter with their heaviest growth. Treat it rather than removing it aggressively, and never pressure wash asphalt shingles — it strips the protective granules and shortens the roof’s life considerably.
Also check moss on walkways and decks, which becomes genuinely slippery and is a real fall risk.
The crawl space, after the wet season
Spring is a useful time to look, because whatever happened over winter is still evident. Standing water, damp ground, condensation on ducts, damp insulation and any musty smell all tell you something the summer will hide.
Cooling, before you need it
The same logic as booking heating in autumn. Demand for air conditioning and heat pump service spikes at the first genuine warm spell, and everyone calls the same week.
Test the system on a mild spring day. Change filters. Clear vegetation and debris from around the outdoor unit. If it has not been serviced in a couple of years, book it now rather than in July.
This applies more sharply in the Tri-Cities and Yakima, where cooling is a necessity rather than a comfort, and where a failure during a heatwave is a genuine problem.
Reopen outdoor plumbing carefully
Turn irrigation and outdoor supplies back on slowly. Opening a valve fully on a system that has been dry all winter sends a pressure surge through it, and that causes failures in systems that survived the freeze intact.
Check hose bibs for leaks once repressurised — a bib that froze over winter may only reveal it when water returns.
Windows and screens
Check for failed seals, visible as fogging between the panes. They tend to become obvious in spring as temperature differentials change.
Check that windows open and close properly, particularly bedroom windows, which need to function as an escape route.
Exterior work season
Washington’s exterior trades compress into the dry months, so roofing, siding, painting and deck work all get busy quickly.
Getting quotes in early spring for work later in the year means better availability, more attention from contractors who are not yet stretched, and a less rushed job.