By the EverGlow Exteriors Team

Four jobs, in this order: gutters before the first hard freeze, windows before the holidays, a house wash to strip summer’s algae, and a deck clear-off before the snow sits on it. Miss the window on any of them and winter makes it worse or makes it impossible. Here’s the checklist we’d run on our own houses, with the deadlines that matter in central Iowa.

1. Gutters — late October to early November, non-negotiable

This is the one with a real deadline. Gutters need to be cleaned after most of the leaves are down but before the first hard freeze — in the Des Moines metro that’s a window of roughly late October through mid-November. Clean too early and the last leaf drop refills them. Wait too long and the debris freezes into a solid block, water backs up under the shingles, and you’re in ice-dam territory. An ice dam can push meltwater into your walls; a gutter cleaning costs a rounding error compared to that drywall repair.

While the gutters are open, downspouts should be flushed and extensions checked — frozen splash blocks aimed at the foundation are how spring basement leaks get planted in November.

2. Windows — before the holidays, after the leaves

Fall window cleaning has two jobs: strip off everything summer left behind (sprinkler spots, dust film, spider webbing), and set you up for the season when you’re inside looking out the most. From Thanksgiving to March, your windows are the whole view. Clean glass in early November means bright rooms through the darkest months and a house that’s ready when the relatives show up.

Timing: early-to-mid November is ideal — leaves done, hard freezes not yet routine, holidays ahead. A full window cleaning visit should include screens (washed and, if you like, stored for winter), sills, and tracks, so summer’s grit doesn’t spend five months grinding your window seals. If you’ve still got sprinkler spots from August, deal with them now — our hard water guide explains why those spots get more permanent with every season they sit.

3. House wash — kill the algae before you seal it in for winter

That green tint creeping up the north side of your siding is algae, and it grew all summer. Here’s why fall is the right time to kill it: algae doesn’t die over winter, it hibernates. Leave it on the siding and it wakes up in April with a head start, which is why the same houses look green by June every year. A fall soft wash house washing kills the growth at the root, so you start spring at zero instead of catching up.

Soft washing works fine in fall temperatures — we just need daytime temps reliably above freezing, so October is comfortable and November usually cooperates. Bonus: washing before the windows get cleaned means nothing drips on fresh glass. Right order: house wash, then windows.

4. Deck — clear it off so snow isn’t sitting on organic mush

Wet leaves left on a deck through winter are a stain-and-rot starter kit. They trap moisture against the boards, feed mildew, and leave tannin shadows you’ll see until you sand. Before the first snow: furniture cushions in, leaves off, and if the boards are already green or gray, a proper deck washing so the wood goes into winter clean and drains properly. If the deck’s due for stain or seal, that’s a spring job — but it goes ten times better on wood that wintered clean.

The order, the calendar, the shortcut

• Early–mid October: house wash and deck wash while temps are easy
• Late October–early November: gutters, once the leaves are mostly down
• Early–mid November: windows, so the shine lasts into the holidays
• Before first snow: deck cleared, downspout extensions on, done until spring

You can book each of these separately — or you can do what a growing number of our customers in Waukee and Clive do and put the whole rotation on a service plan. Ours are the only plans around that mix services: windows in spring, house wash in summer, gutters and windows in fall — one schedule, $25 to $75 off every visit, and the fall slots are reserved before the October rush hits.

Get the fall list handled in one call

Tell us which of the four your house needs and we’ll quote the bundle — bundling two or more fall jobs into one visit saves you a trip charge and saves us a drive, and we pass that along. October and November calendars fill fast once the first frost warning hits the forecast, so the quote is worth getting in September even if the work waits.

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