The first freeze doesn't send a warning. It turns up on a Tuesday night, and everything still sitting outside finds out at the same time you do.
Below: the five jobs that close the patio down, why your mower's last tank of gas matters more than its last cut, the one thing outside you shouldn't wrap up, the tools that rust in the shed all winter, and the cords to check before the lights go up.
Reply and tell us: what's still out on your patio right now? We read every one.
Close the Patio in Five Jobs
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This is a Saturday, not a project. How much of it you need depends on your winters, but the order doesn't change.
The thing that actually wrecks outdoor furniture isn't cold. It's water that soaks into a cushion, a wooden joint or a hollow metal leg and then freezes, so everything goes away dry or it doesn't go away yet.
Bring the cushions in. Give them a day in the sun first if they've been rained on, because a cushion that goes into a bin damp comes out in April with mildew through the foam. Store them somewhere dry and off a concrete floor.
Wash the furniture and let it dry all the way. Mild soap and water is enough for most of it. Pollen and bird mess left on all winter etches finishes and stains fabric.
Then cover it or store it. Tip tables and chairs so water runs off rather than pooling, and don't seal a cover over furniture that's still wet.
Close the umbrella, dry it, and lay it on its side. A standing umbrella is a sail, and a winter gust will take it across the yard or into a window. Slide it under a deck or along a garage wall.
Shut the grill down at the tank. Close the cylinder valve first, disconnect the hose, then put the cover on.
Then there's the tank itself, and this is the one worth getting right. Per the Propane Education and Research Council, never store a propane cylinder indoors or in an enclosed space, including a basement, garage, shed or tent. It stays outside, upright, on something level, with air around it, and away from any source of heat.
The same goes for the grill itself while you're still using it. The CPSC says to keep it at least 10 feet from the house and never to use it in a garage, carport, porch or breezeway.
The Mower's Last Tank Matters More Than Its Last Cut
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The mower that won't start in April almost always died in October, and it died in the fuel tank.
Per Briggs and Stratton, gasoline starts going stale in about 30 days. Nearly all pump gas is E10, which means it's a tenth ethanol, and ethanol pulls water out of the air.
TLDR: the ethanol and the water it absorbs eventually separate out and sink. What settles at the bottom of the tank is a corrosive sludge, and that's what your carburetor tries to run on in spring.
There are two ways to leave it, and you have to pick one:
Treated and full. Add fuel stabilizer, which Briggs and Stratton says protects stored fuel for up to 24 months. A full tank also leaves less room for damp air.
Empty and dry. Take all the fuel out and let the engine run until it stops on its own. Briggs and Stratton specifically recommends this route if you aren't using a stabilizer.
What you can't do is leave half a tank of untreated gas in a cold garage for six months.
Pick your route before the last cut of the year, not after.
If you're treating it, add the stabilizer to fresh fuel at the dose on the bottle.
Run the engine for about two minutes so the treated fuel reaches the carburetor, not just the tank.
If you're going dry, run the engine until it quits for lack of fuel.
Scrape the deck clean while the grass clippings underneath are still soft.
Battery mower? None of this applies. Charge the pack, then bring it indoors, because a battery left at freezing in an unheated garage loses capacity it doesn't give back.
Don't Wrap the Outdoor AC Unit
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Covering things up is the whole mood of October, which is exactly why this one catches people. The big metal box beside your house is the thing to leave alone.
Lennox, which makes them, doesn't recommend a full cover. An air conditioner is built to sit in open air, and a snug vinyl wrap works against it in two ways.
It traps moisture. Damp with nowhere to go turns into rust, corrosion and mildew on parts that would have dried out on their own.
It makes a nest. A dry, sheltered box in a cold yard is exactly what a mouse is looking for, and what they chew is the wiring.
So you'd be paying in spring for a problem the winter never had.
Clear the leaves and debris from around the base and off the top.
Cut back anything that has grown into it over the summer.
Lay a board or a top-only cover flat across the top if falling ice or heavy leaf drop is a real concern where you are.
Leave every side open. The fins need air.
One exception, and it matters. If you heat with a heat pump, that outdoor unit runs all winter. Don't cover it at all, and keep snow clear of it.
Clean the Tools Before They Go in the Shed
A spade put away with wet soil on it comes out in March with a pitted blade. It takes about twenty minutes to stop that happening to the whole rack.
Wisconsin Horticulture gives the sequence:
Rinse the soil off and take the rest off with a cloth or a stiff brush.
Take existing rust back with coarse steel wool or a lump of pumice.
Dry every tool completely. Oil over damp metal traps the moisture underneath it.
Wipe the metal with oil, or a squirt of silicone spray, so nothing bare is left exposed.
Sand rough wooden handles smooth, then feed them with boiled linseed oil so they don't crack.
Sharpen the cutting edges now with a file or a whetstone, filing into the edge, so everything is ready in spring.
For shovels and spades there's a shortcut worth the bucket it takes. Fill a five gallon bucket with sand mixed with a light oil and plunge the clean blade in and out of it. The sand scours and the oil coats in one move.
Then hang them. Wisconsin's last note is the one most sheds break: don't lean tools against a wall with the blades on the floor, because concrete dulls an edge and holds the damp right where you don't want it.
Check the Outdoor Cords Before the Lights Go Up
Holiday lighting goes up in about six weeks, and it goes up in the dark, in the cold, using whatever cord is nearest. This is the calm weekend to sort that out.
Three checks, per the Electrical Safety Foundation International:
Read the cord. Every extension cord and decoration used outside has to be marked for outdoor use. The marking is printed on the cord itself.
Look at every cord and light string for cracked insulation, frayed ends and bent prongs before any of it gets plugged in.
Keep cords out of snow and standing water, which means planning where they run before the first storm rather than after it.
Then the outlet itself. Exterior receptacles should be GFCI protected, and a GFCI is only useful if it still trips.
TLDR: a GFCI is the outlet with the test and reset buttons on it. It watches for current leaking somewhere it shouldn't, like through a person, and cuts power in a fraction of a second.
Per the CPSC, test yours monthly: plug in a nightlight or a small lamp, press test, and the light should go out. Press reset and it should come back. If pressing test does nothing, the device has failed and needs replacing.
One more habit worth breaking. A power strip plugs into a wall receptacle, never into another power strip.
One Cover Beats Four
If the dining set stays out, the money question is whether you cover the pieces or the whole thing. Covering the whole thing wins, and it isn't close.
The one we'd point you to is the Classic Accessories Ravenna Water-Resistant Square Patio Table and Chair Set Cover, at $140.95 in either the 86 inch or the 98 inch square size.
Do the math against their own range. Classic Accessories sells a single Ravenna patio chair cover for $50.95, so four chairs alone would run $203.80 before you had covered the table at all.
The build, from the listing: Gardelle One woven polyester with a UV-stabilized coating and a water-resistant laminated backing, air vents to cut the condensation that builds under a sealed cover, and a belted hem with click-close straps so a February gust doesn't take it off the set.
We haven't had one of these through a winter. The specs, both prices and the warranty terms come from Classic Accessories' own listings.
Two things before you buy. It's water-resistant, not waterproof, which the company's own FAQ says plainly, so the furniture underneath still has to go under dry. And the set cover carries a two-year warranty while that single chair cover carries a limited lifetime one, which is a strange gap on the more expensive product.
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One quick tap
Which should we cover next?
That's Friday: five jobs and one Saturday, the mower's last tank, the one unit to leave uncovered, the tools that rust in the shed, and the cords to check before December.
If you only get to one thing this weekend, bring the cushions in.
Forward this to whoever in your house keeps saying they'll deal with the patio.
See you Monday.
The Home Wire
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