No matter the size of your home, where you live, or how new the house is, every homeowner needs to learn about maintenance. They say that your average home maintenance costs should be anywhere from 1% to 4% of the value of your home every year.
Unfortunately, that’s far too expensive for the average owner. That’s why it’s important for homeowners to know their full home maintenance schedule throughout the year. Here’s a comprehensive home maintenance checklist for every season to get you started.
Winter Home Maintenance Checklist
Winter is typically the time when we want to do the least. Hopefully, you’ve taken care of most of it by the fall, but here are some essential maintenance tips during the winter.
Winterizing (For Snowbirds)
If you plan to be away from your home or vacation home for more than a week during the winter, winterizing your home is essential. This includes shutting off the water and voiding the pipes to avoid freezing and potentially taking care of your heating system as well. Otherwise, water will expand when it freezes, which can burst your pipes and cost thousands of dollars to fix.
Shovel Off Load-Bearing Structures
Decks, roofs, balconies, sheds, and more. The weight of snow can add up quickly, so try to keep snow off of these surfaces as much as possible. A roof rake and a shovel are your best friends in this case.
It doesn’t need to be perfect. You just need to get the majority of the weight off of these structures. Otherwise, they may collapse after another storm.
Also, if you have solar panels on your roof, you cannot use a roof rake! You will break the glass on the panels. Instead, hire a professional solar panel cleaner to take care of this for you, as it’s unsafe to go on your roof during the winter.
Insulate Your Pipes
Again, frozen pipes are not a cheap fix. Insulate your pipes, especially if they are exposed outside or in an unheated basement. This is a cheap preventative measure that can save a small fortune.
Also, you can leave this insulation on year-round. If you haven’t already insulated your pipes, now is a great time to do it and forget about it.
Even so, you should still insulate outdoor faucets during the winter if you keep them running year-round.
Switch Your Ceiling Fans
Make sure your ceiling fans are blowing upward or clockwise. This ensures that they pull cool air up, allowing the heat (which naturally rises) to stay downward at the level of you, your children, and your pets.
Your ceiling fan should have a little black switch somewhere on it. All you have to do is switch it to the other side a couple of times a year. If you don’t see the switch, look up your ceiling fan model online for instructions.
Spring Home Maintenance Checklist
Spring is finally here, so get ready for bright green trees, Easter eggs, and a whole lot of mud. Here are some tips for home maintenance in the spring.
Cleaning the Gutters
The spring is a great time to clean your gutters. Sand, dirt, and debris can easily make their way into your gutters as you snowblow or as plows pass by your home.
Fortunately, if it’s only dirt, it should be easy to unclog and remove. Of course, it isn’t always that easy, as leaves typically find their way in, no matter how late in the fall you cleaned them.
However, you want to remember to get this done in early spring. While April showers bring May flowers, they can also destroy the exterior of your home. Try to get this done after the last snowfall of the year if possible.
Fortunately, if it is just dirt and debris, you may only need to unclog the drain and run a hose through your gutters. Springtime gutter cleaning is usually easier.
It’s Spring Cleaning Time
Most of your spring maintenance is about recovering from winter. Naturally, we spend the majority of our time inside during the winter, which often means we have a big mess to clean up inside. Outside, the harsh elements have left us with plenty of work as well.
For the inside, clean up to your standards. Just make sure there isn’t anything wet, sharp, or corrosive that can damage your walls or floors. Beyond that, it’s all about your preferences.
However, the outside needs attention. Salt, dirt, sand, and debris are likely all over your home’s exterior. A nice pressure washing should do the trick if you have one available.
Otherwise, a nice soft washing of your home’s exterior will do the trick. We recommend waiting until just after mud season for the best results.
Clean the Windows
Your windows are likely quite foggy and cloudy after the winter. Unfortunately, if you don’t clean them, this can become permanent and only get worse over time.
Therefore, we recommend cleaning the inside and outside of your windows every spring. Check out our window cleaning services to learn more.
Prepare For Weeds
Spring is the perfect time to start applying pre-emergent weed and pest controllers to your lawn and garden. It’s also a great time to prevent certain lawn diseases that may deteriorate your lawn during the summer.
Summer Home Maintenance Checklist
Okay, we’ve made it to summer. Our biggest concerns here are staying cool and dry. Here’s how.
Service Your Cooling System
In late spring or early summer, you will want to change the filters and potentially service your air conditioning, central air, heat pump, or HVAC system. The last thing you want is to spend your summer in a sauna.
Reverse Your Ceiling Fans
Now that it’s summer, you want your fans blowing counter-clockwise or downward. Otherwise, they won’t be blowing on you and cooling you down.
Run a Dehumidifier
If you have a basement, attic, or room that you don’t keep cool, run a dehumidifier during the summer. If you have a sink in the basement, run a hose to allow it to drain so you don’t have to keep emptying the bucket.
Humidity can create mold or mildew and invite unwanted pests into your home. A dehumidifier is the best way to keep these forgotten parts of your home safe year-round.
Prune the Trees
The best part about summer is all of the natural light in your home and getting to spend time outside. Well, get outside and let that light in by pruning overreaching trees.
If you let tree branches grow too long, they can interfere with your wiring or other parts of your home, which may pose safety risks. Once they become too big, you may need to hire a professional.
Set Up a Watering System
For your garden and lawn, you’ll need to keep them watered to grow how you want them to. You can do this yourself a couple of times a week or set up a sprinkler system to do it for you.
Clean Your Kitchen Exhaust Filter
Summer is the right time to clean this filter, especially after long seasons of cooking indoors. If you’ve never done this before, now is the time to start. Check your manufacturer’s specific requirements and instructions, and change or clean the filter as soon as possible.
Fall Home Maintenance Checklist
We saved the best for last. Not only is fall America’s favorite season, but it’s also the biggest season for home maintenance, as you want to prepare your home for a warm and cozy winter. Here’s what you need to know.
Cleaning the Gutters (Again)
Blasphemy! Do you really need to do this twice a year?
Unfortunately, yes. While it may not be everybody’s favorite job, it is essential. Your gutters cannot do their job protecting your home’s exterior if they are clogged, and fall is the time when they are most likely to clog.
Make sure you wait until the leaves are down to do this. Otherwise, you’ll have to do it twice before the winter. Consider hiring a professional gutter cleaner if you don’t want to use a ladder twice a year.
Prepare Your Heating System
Whether you’re cleaning your chimney and your wood/pellet stove or changing filters on your furnace, it’s time to prepare your heating system for winter. Always double-check these systems before using them, even if you took care of them in the spring.
For wood stoves, a deep clean is essential at least once a year. Fall is a perfect time, as you haven’t had a fire in months, so there won’t be any hot coals. Early in the fall, clean everything out and scrub it down with a bleach solution before having a fire.
If it’s been a while since you’ve had your HVAC system inspected, now is a great time. The last thing you want is an issue in the middle of winter and to be left to freeze.
Address the Windows and Doors
Windows alone account for 25% of heat loss in your home on average. Doors are another major factor, especially if they have unsealed cracks around them.
There are plenty of strategies for preventing heat loss before the winter. One of the best ways is with double windows or a clear plastic barrier covering your windows. The air between these two barriers will offer plenty of extra insulation during the winter.
For doors, try to keep the bottoms sealed, especially for exterior doors or doors leading to uninsulated or unheated basements, attics, or rooms.
Fill Any Other Cracks
Whether you need to cover your AC unit or spray some insulation foam, a little goes a long way. Take a look around and feel around for drafts in your home. Even saving $0.50 a day on your heating bill will add up to hundreds of dollars in the long run.
Inspect Your Roof
Fall is your last chance to inspect your roof for holes, leaks, or missing shingles before the winter. Once winter comes, the fate of your roof is sealed (hopefully). If the snow begins to melt with a deteriorating roof, it’s already too late.
Preventing water damage to your roof is essential. Even if you don’t want to hire a professional, take a close, hard look at your shingles while you clean your gutters.
From there, go into your attic during the day and turn off the lights. Look around to see if there is any sunlight peaking through on the roof and patch those holes immediately and do a thorough roof cleaning.
These small steps could save you from major repair costs. The average cost of a roof replacement is $8,500 to $14,000, so it doesn’t hurt to look.
Clean the Dryer Vent
Vacuuming lint from your dryer vent will only take a few seconds, but it could prevent a house fire. If your dryer is in your basement, then the vent may be covered in snow.
Typically, that’s fine, as the warm exhaust will melt it. However, if it’s backed up temporarily, it can heat up the trapped lint, which can cause a fire. A quick run with your shop vac should do the trick.
Keep Your Home Running Smoothly
Now that you have a helpful home maintenance checklist, put it to use. This information won’t save your house unless you use it, so keep your property value high, and your stress levels low this year. Remember, the more you do now to care for your home, the fewer major expenses you’ll have to worry about later.
Stay up to date with our latest tips for homeowners, and check out our service plans to see what we can offer you here in Bellevue, WA.
