Seasonal

Preparing Your East Bay Home for 100°F Summers

By Richard · Published January 22, 2026

If you’ve lived in Brentwood, Antioch, Oakley, or Pittsburg for a summer, you already know: it gets hot. We’re talking weeks of 100°F-plus days, and a stretch of 105–110°F is normal in July and August. That kind of heat punishes a house that wasn’t prepared, and rewards a house that was.

Here’s how to get yours ready, in priority order.

1. Refresh Your Weatherstripping

Cheap, fast, and the single highest-ROI summer project I know. The weatherstripping on most East Bay homes is at least partially failed by year five. When it fails, your AC is fighting a constant trickle of hot outside air bleeding in through every door and window. Replacing weatherstripping on three or four exterior doors takes me less than half a day and often pays for itself in the first month of cooling.

2. Check Your Attic Insulation and Ventilation

Most East Bay attics are under-insulated, especially in homes built before the 1990s. Hot attics radiate heat down through ceilings all afternoon — the reason your upstairs is always hotter than your downstairs. Adding insulation and improving attic ventilation are bigger projects (often a contractor’s scope, not a handyman’s), but they’re worth the conversation.

3. Service Your AC Before It Breaks

The first 100°F day of the year is the worst day to discover your AC has a problem. Get it serviced in April or May. If filters look bad, change them. If the outdoor condenser is choked with weeds and leaves, clear it. If the system short-cycles or runs loud, get an HVAC pro out before the repair queue fills up.

4. Get Ahead of Door Issues

Hot weather makes wood doors swell, and a sticking door becomes a not-closing door fast. I do a lot of door adjustment work in May and early June. Plane, shim, and adjust strikes — usually a 30-minute job. Easy now, harder when the AC is on full blast.

5. Refinish or Inspect Your Deck

Sun and heat are the two things that destroy decks. If you’ve gone 2+ years without refinishing, this is the time. Wait until July and the heat makes the work miserable for whoever’s doing it. More on prepping decks for summer here.

6. Check Your Fence Posts

Summer ground movement can loosen fence posts as soils dry and shift. A fence that’s solid in March can be loose in September. Walk the line and do the wiggle test. Catch it before fall storms turn loose posts into broken ones.

7. Window Treatments That Actually Work

Cheapest cooling improvement most homes are missing: thermal blackout curtains on west-facing windows. Drawing them in the afternoon can drop a room’s temperature by several degrees. Way cheaper than running the AC harder.

8. Reverse Your Ceiling Fans

Most ceiling fans have a switch on the housing that reverses direction. Counter-clockwise (looking up) pushes air down — that’s what you want in summer. Free upgrade, takes a minute per fan.

9. Service Outdoor Faucets and Hose Bibbs

Outdoor faucets often develop drips over winter. Now’s the time to replace washers or full bibbs before you need them constantly for summer landscape watering.

10. Walk Your Roof from the Ground

You don’t need to climb up. With binoculars from the ground, look for missing or shifted shingles, lifted flashing, and damaged ridge caps. Anything you spot now is much easier to fix in May than in October.

When to Get Help

The items most worth hiring out: weatherstripping (because the matching, cutting, and clean install are tedious), deck work, fence repair, and door adjustments. Bundling them into one half-day visit usually costs less than you’d expect.

If you’re in the East Bay and you’d like to get summer-ready before the heat arrives, send me a quick note or call (408) 623-0971.

#summer prep#east bay#energy efficiency

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