Home maintenance checklist for new homeowners
Your first year comes down to a short list you repeat. Test the smoke alarms and check the furnace filter every month. Book a heating checkup in the fall and a cooling checkup in the spring. Clean the gutters twice a year, and flush a tank water heater and clean the dryer vent once a year.
What maintenance should I do in my first year as a new homeowner?
Do a few small jobs every month and book two checkups, one for heating and one for cooling. The monthly jobs take a few minutes: test the smoke alarms, press the test button on each GFCI outlet, and look at the furnace filter. The rest happen once or twice a year, and the table below lists them with their sources.
If the home has never had a radon test, add one to your first year. The EPA says to fix the home when the radon level is 4 pCi/L or more. You can do the monthly jobs and the dryer vent yourself. The heating and cooling checkups need an HVAC company, and if you don't own a tall ladder, the gutters are a job to hand off too.
What is a home maintenance schedule by month?
Every month, test the smoke alarms and GFCI outlets and check the HVAC filters. Have the cooling checked in the spring and the heating in the fall, and clean the gutters twice a year. Once a year, have the heating equipment and chimney cleaned and inspected, flush a tank water heater and clean the dryer vent pipe. Replace each smoke alarm every 10 years.
The table below lists the same jobs with the source for each interval. If your furnace, water heater or dryer came with a manual, follow its instructions where they differ.
| When | Job | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Every month | Test each smoke alarm | U.S. Fire Administration |
| Every month | Test each GFCI outlet with its test button | CPSC |
| Every month | Inspect, clean or change the furnace and AC filters | ENERGY STAR |
| Spring | Have a contractor check the cooling system | ENERGY STAR |
| Fall | Have a contractor check the heating system | ENERGY STAR |
| Twice a year | Clean the gutters | InterNACHI |
| Once a year | Have a professional clean and inspect heating equipment and chimneys | U.S. Fire Administration |
| Once a year | Flush a tank water heater, or every 6 months with hard water | Rheem |
| Once a year | Clean lint out of the dryer vent pipe, sooner if clothes take longer to dry | NFPA |
| Once a year | Replace the batteries in smoke alarms that take replaceable batteries | U.S. Fire Administration |
| Every 10 years | Replace each smoke alarm | U.S. Fire Administration |
One job happens every load: the NFPA says to clean the dryer's lint filter before or after each load of laundry. That habit doesn't replace the yearly vent cleaning, because lint also collects in the pipe behind the dryer.
Do you need annual cleaning of your HVAC and heating unit?
Yes. ENERGY STAR recommends having a contractor check the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall. The U.S. Fire Administration says heating equipment and chimneys should be cleaned and inspected each year by a professional. Between visits, the filter is your job, and ENERGY STAR says to inspect, clean or change it once a month.
ENERGY STAR suggests booking the checkups when the clocks change for daylight saving time, which makes them easy to remember. If a checkup turns up a problem, who to call for home repairs covers which trade fixes what.
Who do you call for gutter cleaning as a new homeowner?
Call a gutter cleaning service, a roofer or a handyman. A gutter service does only this job, a roofer can look over the roof while they're up there, and a handyman can fit it in with other small jobs on the same visit. Start with the list your agent sent you, and if nobody on it does gutters, ask your agent who they'd call.
Ask whoever you hire to check that the downspouts carry water 4 to 6 feet away from the foundation, which is what InterNACHI recommends. Before you book the first service call of any kind, run through these questions to ask a contractor before hiring. If you're still in your first month, start with what to do after buying a house.
Sources
- ENERGY STAR: Maintenance checklist
- U.S. Fire Administration: Smoke alarms
- U.S. Fire Administration: Heating fire safety
- CPSC: Home Electrical Safety Checklist (PDF)
- Rheem: How often to flush your water heater
- NFPA: Clothes dryer safety (PDF)
- InterNACHI: Drainage around the home
- InterNACHI: Inspecting gutters and downspouts
- EPA: Health risk of radon
Keep the pros for each job in one place
If your agent uses Proferral, your go-to list opens with no app and no login, and the link doesn't expire, so the HVAC company and the gutter cleaner are on your phone each season. Proferral doesn't schedule maintenance or send you reminders, so the calendar is yours to keep. Here's how your agent's go-to list works.
Your agent sends you the link, and you open it on your phone without installing anything.