What to do in the house and garden this month: October to December
Each month below lists the house and garden jobs that are due, why they are due now, and the UK calculators, guides and planners that work out the materials. Timings suit most of the UK; in the north and on high ground, frosts come earlier, so move outdoor jobs a couple of weeks forward.
October
October is the month to get the house ready before the heating goes on for good. If the loft has 100 mm of old insulation, reaching the recommended 270 mm means adding 170 mm. Lagging 12 m of 15 mm and 6 m of 22 mm pipe in the loft takes 14 and 7 one-metre lengths, an afternoon's work that also prevents burst pipes.
Clear the gutters
Clear leaves once most have fallen and check the joints and downpipes while you are up the ladder. Blocked gutters overflow down the walls and cause damp.
Read first: How Much Guttering Do I Need? Lengths, Brackets and Fall (UK)
Insulate the loft and lag the pipes
Lay the top-up layer across the joists, keep the eaves vents clear, and lag the pipes and tank in the loft, which gets colder once it is better insulated.
Read first: Loft Insulation: How Many Rolls Do I Need to Reach 270 mm? · How Much Pipe Lagging Do I Need? 15 mm and 22 mm Foam (UK)
Turf, seed and mulch
Autumn is the best time to sow lawn seed or lay turf: the soil is still warm and the rain does the watering. Mulch borders with bark to keep weeds down over winter.
Read first: How Much Grass Seed Do I Need Per m²? UK Lawn Guide · Turf or Grass Seed for a New Lawn? What Each Needs (UK) · Topsoil and Bark: How Much Do I Need for My Garden? (UK)
Check the fence before the gales
Autumn storms find loose panels and rotten posts. Replace them now, while the ground is soft enough to dig and before winter winds take the whole run down.
Read first: Garden Fence Materials List UK: Panels, Posts, Gravel Boards
Planners for October: Autumn jobs before the cold arrives · Getting the house warm and cheaper to run this winter.
November
November is when cold rooms show up. A 4 x 3.5 m living room needs about 1,848 watts of heat, so look for a radiator rated at least that at ΔT50 (the figure on the label for a boiler system). An undersized one explains a room that never warms up. A 5 x 4 m room with a wood burner needs a stove of about 3.4 kW; buying one far bigger means running it slumbering and sooting the glass.
Size radiators for the cold rooms
Work out the heat each room needs and compare it with the radiator on the wall. Bleed the radiators and check the boiler pressure while you are at it.
Read first: What Size Radiator Do I Need? Watts and BTU by Room (UK) · How to Calculate Room Heat Loss: Watts, U-Values and Examples · What Size Boiler Do I Need? kW by Home Size (UK)
Wood burners and chimneys
Have the chimney swept before the burner is in daily use, and if you are buying a stove, size it to the room rather than the showroom.
Read first: What Size Wood Burner Do I Need? Room Size to kW Chart (UK)
Cut the cost of electric heating
Find out what a plug-in heater or underfloor heating really costs per day before winter bills arrive.
Read first: Cost to Run Household Appliances: UK Table per kWh · Electric Underfloor Heating Cost: Running Cost and Size Chart (UK)
Save the winter rain
Fit a water butt to the shed or house downpipe now and it will be full by spring.
Read first: How Big a Water Butt Do I Need? Roof Area, Rainfall and Litres (UK)
Planners for November: Getting the house warm and cheaper to run this winter · Planning the roof, the loft and electrics.
December
December is for Christmas and keeping warm. A turkey for 8 adults and 2 children is about 6.5 kg, and a frozen one needs about 4 days to thaw in the fridge, so it comes out of the freezer before the weekend. Running a 2 kW heater four hours a day for a month at 27p per kWh costs £64.80, worth knowing before you use one to heat a room all winter.
Christmas dinner
Work out the bird size first, then the thawing and cooking times, and write the timings on the fridge door.
Read first: What Size Turkey for Christmas? Thawing and Cooking Times (UK)
Keep the heat in
Check the loft hatch is insulated and draughtproofed, and think about which rooms you heat. The insulation thickness calculator shows how much a wall or floor needs to meet current standards.
Read first: How Thick Should Insulation Be? Thickness for a Target U-Value
Plan an indoor project
Winter is a good time to decorate or lay a floor: no weather to wait for. Work out the paint, wallpaper or flooring now, and buy in the January sales.
Read first: How Much Paint Do I Need? Litres per Room Size (UK) · How Many Rolls of Wallpaper Do I Need? UK Room Chart
Planners for December: Planning to decorate a room · Planning floors, tiling and screed · Getting the house warm and cheaper to run this winter.
Looking for everything on one subject instead? Browse UK topics or the UK project planners.
Estimates only. Weather decides the timing more than the calendar does. Use a Gas Safe engineer for boiler and gas work and a registered electrician for new circuits.