Fall and Winter Exterior Cleaning Checklist for NYC Property Managers (2026)

3. Wet Leaves Are a Sanitation Condition, Not Just a Mess

Under NYC Administrative Code section 16-118, property owners must clean the sidewalk, tree pits, grass strips, and the gutter area extending 18 inches from the curb into the street. That is exactly where leaves pile up in October and November. A dirty sidewalk or dirty area condition draws a $100 penalty, and DSNY checks residential blocks in two one hour windows daily. Commercial enforcement is also twice daily, with times that vary by address.

• Leaf and yard waste must be separated. Use paper lawn and leaf bags, clear plastic bags, or a labeled Curbside Composting bin, set out on your composting collection day.
• Branches and twigs: bundled with twine or rope rather than nylon line or tape, bundles no larger than 2 feet by 4 feet, and no more than 40 pounds of woody debris.
• The one most managing agents miss: leaves, grass, branches, and clippings generated by a commercial landscaper cannot be set out for curbside collection at all. Your landscaper must haul them to a permitted composting facility.
• Composting enforcement resumed in January 2026 after a pause. Fines are tiered by building size, with smaller buildings at lower amounts than buildings of nine units or more. Confirm current tiers with DSNY or 311, since enforcement posture has changed twice in the past 18 months.

There is also a cleaning reason to move fast. Wet leaves left on concrete, pavers, and light stone leach tannins that set into a stain, and a tannin stain is far harder to remove in April than it is in October.

4. Drains and Catch Basins: One Chain, Four Links

This is the sequence that produces January phone calls: leaves fill the gutter line, the gutter line fills the catch basin, the basin stops draining, water ponds at the curb, and the ponding freezes into sheet ice at your entrance. Every link is preventable in October.

• Flat roof drains and scuppers, not just pitched roof gutters. This is the NYC specific item that national checklists skip entirely. A blocked roof drain means ponding, added dead load, ice at the drain bowl and parapet, and a leak that shows up inside in January.
• Area drains, trench drains, and parking inlets fail on leaves and litter and are almost always overlooked.
• Catch basins: DEP owns and maintains more than 150,000 of them citywide and explicitly invites property owners to clear leaves, debris, and litter off a grate. Report a clogged, sunken, or damaged basin through 311 as a Catch Basin Complaint, which routes to DEP.
• Be accurate about the duty: we could find no NYC code section requiring a private owner to clean the catch basin itself, since the basin is in the roadway and is DEP’s asset. What is legally yours is the sidewalk and the 18 inches of gutter where those leaves collect. Clearing the grate is smart self interest, not a legal obligation.

5. The Snow Clock You Are On

Administrative Code section 16-123 requires owners, lessees, tenants, and occupants to remove snow, ice, dirt, and other material from the sidewalk and gutter within four hours after the snow stops falling, with the hours between 9 PM and 7 AM excluded from that count. The City publishes the simplified version below, and it is what your staff should be working from.

The cleared path must be at least 48 inches wide. Fines run roughly $100 to $150 for a first offense and escalate toward $250 to $350 for repeat violations within 12 months. Because the exact schedule has been amended, treat those as ranges and confirm current amounts before quoting them to an owner or a board.

Also worth noting for planning: NYC heat season runs October 1 through May 31. During the day, from 6 AM to 10 PM, when it is below 55 degrees outside, indoor temperature must be at least 68 degrees. Overnight, from 10 PM to 6 AM, indoor temperature must be at least 62 degrees. Hot water must be at least 120 degrees year round. October 1 is the date every NYC manager already has in their head, so hang the exterior deadline off the same week.

6. Clean These Now, Because They Get Harder in the Cold

• Graffiti: remove in fall while temperatures still support solvent chemistry and hot water methods. Cold slows chemical action and aged paint bonds harder. See our guide to removing oil stains, gum, and graffiti from NYC concrete.
• Dumpster pads and trash enclosures: degrease and sanitize before the cold, because organics freeze into the pad and cannot be removed until spring. Pest pressure moves indoors in the fall, which makes this timing matter more, not less.
• Awnings, canopies, and signage: clean before the holiday retail season, and while it is still warm enough for soft wash chemistry on fabric. For retail tenants this is a revenue deadline, not a maintenance one.
• North facing walls: mildew, algae, and moss thrive on shaded elevations that stay damp all winter. Growth left in place holds moisture against the substrate through every freeze thaw cycle.
• Windows: take the last full exterior clean in October, then move to a reduced winter cadence deliberately rather than letting the schedule lapse. Our commercial window cleaning schedules are usually set in September.
• Entry mats and the transition zone: matting run, drainage under the mats, and the sidewalk to lobby transition are where winter slip and fall claims actually originate.

7. Book the Spring Salt Wash Before You Need It

De-icers keep working on your concrete long after the ice is gone. Industry guidance from concrete associations is direct: ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate, which also appear in common fertilizers, rapidly disintegrate concrete. Magnesium chloride, magnesium acetate, and magnesium nitrate are damaging. Calcium chloride can attack concrete at concentration. Rock salt may be used sparingly after the first winter. On concrete under a year old, use no de-icing chemical at all, only plain sand for traction.

That is why a NYC exterior program is two visits, not one. Fall strips organics and leaf tannins before they set and freeze in. Spring strips chloride residue before it keeps working on the slab and the steel inside it. Booking both at once in September is usually cheaper and always easier to schedule.

Final Thoughts

The fall exterior calendar in New York is driven by two hard dates that have nothing to do with appearance: October 1, when heat season starts and your building shifts into winter mode, and roughly November 10, when the reliable washing window closes. Everything else, the drains, the leaves, the graffiti, the awnings, the matting, fits between them. Get it done in that order and the winter is quiet.

We handle fall and spring exterior programs for property managers, apartment buildings, office buildings, and schools across all five boroughs, and our commercial power washing crews work off hours so tenants are never disrupted.