Top Tips For Creating A Home Maintenance Checklist

How To Create A Home Maintenance Checklist

How To Create A Home Maintenance Checklist

Being a homeowner is a very rewarding experience, but it also requires a lot of dedication and hard work. It’s up to you to ensure that your living quarters are taken care of properly so that both you and your family are safe.

Creating the proper maintenance checklist for your home to identify if any repairs need to be pursued can be tricky. Here are a few tips on what you need to do specifically, catered for different time frames.

Monthly Home Maintenance Checklist

The DIY Network details a few inspections and potential repairs that you will have to pursue monthly. To maintain the proper functioning of your home’s water supply system and adjacent fixtures, drains and faucets need to be cleaned at least once a month. Vinegar is a good inexpensive solution for getting rid of mineral deposits on faucets and shower heads.

Make sure to pour boiling water down all the drains in your house, especially those who aren’t used that often. And if one has gotten clogged in the meantime, baking soda is an instant fix that you surely have lying around in your pantry.

If you have a frost-free refrigerator, now’s the time to check the drain pan. And speaking of your kitchen’s appliances, your dishwasher needs inspecting as well, provided you have one. Look out for any potential leaks it might have and don’t forget to clean the exhaust fan filter and its blades.

Biannual Home Maintenance Checklist

Although monthly DYI inspections are important, not everything needs to be done that often. There are some things you only need to do twice a year, but make sure to do them properly. The first and most important one is giving your entire living quarters a proper cleaning. Pick two weekends every six months each year in which to do this and really go to town.

Involving your family is an effective way to get it done with faster, and it can also make for a great bonding opportunity. Dust every nook and cranny in all the rooms of your house, and don’t forget about the basement. This is beneficial for the integrity of your home, as well as your overall health.

Next, it’s time to replace the batteries in all your detectors. These nifty little gadgets can be true lifesavers in the case of an undetected gas leak or a small oven fire going south, but if you’re not careful they will die out and you will be exposed to danger.

Thus, making sure they get fresh fuel every six months or so is the least you can do for your safety, as well as that of your family. And last, but not least, test the pressure relief valve on your water heater. This prevents leaks caused by mineral buildup-related corrosion.

Seasonal Home Maintenance Checklist

Create Seasonal Home Maintenance Checklists

Create Seasonal Home Maintenance Checklists

According to The New York Times, one’s home naturally operates with the seasons. Just like nature, it becomes alive in spring and goes into warm hibernation with the arrival of winter. Thus, each new time of year has its own mandatory home maintenance operations that need to ensue.

Spring Home Maintenance Checklist

At its core, spring’s the season for backyard and garden maintenance. Thus, make sure to clean out any leftover leaves and other debris that the snow might have kept covered until March. Reseed your lawn, trim your hedges and fertilize your green spaces accordingly to welcome the heat of summer properly.

If you have any trees, call in an arborist to inspect them and see if any of them were damaged by frost and need a bit of upkeep. Clean out your gutter, and your pool if you have one. But outside work is not all that you need to do. The interior of your home also needs a proper inspection.

Therefore, it’s time to go into the basement and test the sump pump to make sure it’s ready to face the rains of spring. It’s also the perfect time to schedule one of two mandatory yearly HVAC system checkups, so give your technician a call.

Bonus Content: 16 Spring Home Maintenance Tips For Your Home

Summer Home Maintenance Checklist

Although summer isn’t typically a home repair season, there are still some things you need to look after if you want your living quarters to stay in tip-top shape. For example, any plants and foliage you might have in your garden need extra moisture in the heat of summer. Thus, you need to check your sprinklers and see if they work properly.

As for the inside of your house, making sure your air-conditioning system works is essential if you want to get through extreme temperatures comfortably. To do this, clean out your filters once a month. On top of that, consider installing some ceiling fans if you don’t already have them. These create a pleasant breeze that helps cool you down after a long day.

Power outages are most common during summer, due to extreme heat and violent storms. Make sure you have enough flashlights and batteries for them on hand, as well as a disaster kit containing canned food, first aid necessities, medicine and plenty of bottled water.

Bonus Content: Guide To Summertime Home Maintenance

Fall Home Maintenance Checklist

Just like spring, fall is another perfect season for home maintenance and repair projects. This time around, you will have to mainly prepare for the cold of winter. Check your furnace and see if everything is working fine. If it isn’t, it’s time to call in a technician to fix it. You don’t want to get caught without any working heat in the middle of a snowstorm, do you?

If your house works on steam heat, then have a plumber look at your boiler and radiator. Draining some water from the former and testing the valves on the latter is essential for them to run smoothly and provide your home with much-needed warmth once the cold season rolls around.

Finally, request the assistance of chimney sweep to inspect and clean yours. This is vital if you have either a furnace or a fireplace. And in the case of the second option, don’t forget to stock up on plenty of firewood come September to ensure that your winter will be warm and pleasant.

Bonus Content: Top Fall Home Maintenance Tasks To Complete

Winter Home Maintenance Checklist

For the most part, winter is the time to step down and cuddle up next to a heater or fireplace. However, extreme below zero temperatures can be damaging to pipes. To prevent them from freezing over, keep the thermostat at a steady temperature and properly insulate them when possible. Turning on the water from time to time is also a good solution.

On the outside of your house, ice dams are the main threat.  These form on the roof and damage your gutters over time. Buying a roof rake and removing fresh snow from up there before it freezes is the safest way to prevent them.

Last, but not least, checking your generator is essential. Winter brings a lot of storms with it, especially in colder areas of the globe. This can lead to weeks-long power outages, so ensure that your home is ready to withstand them.

Bonus Content: Guide For Winterizing Your Home

Final Thoughts On Creating A Home Maintenance Checklist

Depending on the time of year, you will need to perform various maintenance procedures and repairs to your house. Some you can do on your own, while others require professional assistance. The essential lesson to take from all of this is to do them all at the right moment so that your quality of life remains high.

Other Helpful Resources For Home Maintenance, Repairs, & Remodeling


About The Author:  The above article “How to Create a Proper Home Maintenance Checklist was written by Vince, who has an educational background in Engineering Design and a personal work experience in home improvement and DIY projects, Vince is part of the team in charge of www.theplumbinginfo.com. He loves to get his hands dirty and fix pumps, wires and build all sorts of things.

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