What to do, when to do it, and when it is worth paying someone. Written for houses and condos in Oakville, Mississauga, Milton, Burlington and Etobicoke — with the local schedules and bylaws that actually apply here.
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Spongy moth egg masses go up around mid-August and sit on fences, eavestroughs, furniture and bark all winter. Autumn is the window to take them off — and the part worth getting right is telling them apart from the native masses that belong there.
Spongy moth egg masses are fuzzy, tan clumps ranging from the size of a dime to larger than a toonie, laid on sheltered flat surfaces from mid-August onward. Toronto says they can be destroyed from mid-August until the end of April, and recommends waiting until the leaves are down so you can see them. Scrape them into soapy water rather than onto the ground. Two other masses you will find on branches are native insects, and those stay.
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A dip in the run, a corner that drips only in heavy rain, a stain down the fascia. The eavestrough repair or replacement question is usually settled by the wood behind the trough rather than by the metal itself.
A move creates about a dozen address changes and exactly three of them carry a deadline in law. Here is which ones force your hand, which single form covers four records at once, and which ones nobody will ever chase you for.
One item in the yard has an actual rule attached to it, and it is the propane cylinder. Everything else is a question of whether it survives until May. Here is the order that works, and where an old tank goes.
Autumn is one of the two seasons GTA municipalities plant trees. Before buying one, check whether the spot is city land with a free tree attached, file the locate, and know how many litres your municipality says a new tree needs until the ground freezes.
The move that takes one afternoon in July runs out of daylight and legal parking in November. Three things change between September and December in the GTA: how much light you get, how many days bring rain, and when a parking permit stops being valid.
Most autumn yard work does nothing about mice. Raking the middle of the lawn changes nothing. The band that matters is roughly the first metre around the foundation, plus four food sources and a handful of openings the size of a coin.
The grate at the curb is the town's. The grate at the low point of your back yard is yours, and nobody is coming to clear it. Both fill with leaves in the same six weeks, and both take about ten minutes to deal with.
Autumn is when a tree gets marked for removal. Two facts decide whether the cut is legal: where the trunk stands, and how thick it is. Both are checkable in an afternoon, and the size threshold is a different number in every municipality.
Three things need cutting in a GTA garden bed before winter. Almost everything else is better left standing until spring — and one category must never reach the yard waste bag at all.
Aeration opens compacted soil. Dethatching removes a dead layer sitting on top of it. One spade cut through the turf shows which fault you have — and whether the lawn needs either job this autumn.
Removing window screens takes about fifteen minutes for a whole house, and it is the only time all year the sill, the weatherstripping and the outside of the glass are within arm's reach. Here is what to look at while they are out.
Ontario publishes a nitrogen rate for home lawns, federal law fixes what the three numbers on the bag mean, and the province decides which lawn products may legally be used at all. All three are readable in the store.
Autumn is the only stretch of the year when the roofline and the ground are both visible at the same time. What to look at outside during the inspection condition, what to request from the municipality, and which findings are worth reopening a price over.
Twice a year is the federal minimum. Oakville runs its leaf machine for six weeks, Toronto has ended vacuum leaf collection in Etobicoke, and a single autumn clean is usually booked for the wrong week. Here is how to work out what your own house needs.
September is the last month when deck and fence work in the GTA gets planned rather than rushed. What loses its window before frost, which jobs need a permit first, who pays for a shared fence, and what the old wood costs to get rid of.
The only way to know a sump pump works is to pour water into the pit and watch it run. Here is that check, how to find where your downspouts actually drain, and the municipal rules and rebate order that decide what any repair work ends up costing.
The rental counter quotes one number and a contractor quotes another, and the two are not measuring the same day. Here is what the rest of a rented Saturday costs in Oakville, Mississauga and Etobicoke — including the debris nobody prices.
The seed is the cheap part. What decides whether it took is four weeks of watering that has to change partway through, a first cut most people make too early, and a product that is legal in Ontario and would end the job.
Two words carry most of the weight in an exterior-work quote, and they protect different people. Here is what insured and WSIB covered mean in Ontario, which one you can check yourself for free, and the two contract rules that matter before you sign.
The choice is settled by whether the mess arrives once or keeps arriving for weeks. Leaves here take about six weeks, and the towns publish the proof. The free test for your own address, and the five things a seasonal agreement has to contain.
A monthly tenancy ends on the last day of the rental period, so 31 August and 1 September are back to back. The order of work that fits in that gap, what takes two to three weeks and has to be booked now, and the heat obligations that start on the 1st.
A fruit tree is ornamental in June and a weekly chore by late August. Here is the pick-up order that keeps it manageable, the bin the fruit actually belongs in town by town, and what changes when the tree is next door.
Late August sits on top of three different limits at once: the end of the general nesting period, the oak-wilt window, and the point where fresh growth runs short on time. Here is where each one actually binds.