Our homes are among our most treasured and valuable possessions. And we must maintain them to keep them in good condition. Completing regular home maintenance keeps both our homes and families safe as well. That’s reason enough to learn what regular home maintenance requires. And keeping up with regular home maintenance is easy thanks to this comprehensive list. Use this home maintenance checklist for northeast Ohio to protect your family and preserve your home for years.
Contents
- Monthly Home Maintenance
- Quarterly Home Maintenance
- Seasonal Home Maintenance
- Annual Home Maintenance
- Long-Term Home Maintenance
- Home Maintenance Services for Northeast Ohio
Monthly Home Maintenance
With monthly home maintenance in University Heights, you can stay on top of the little details that demand your attention so that they don’t become big, expensive problems down the road. Your monthly Cleveland Heights home maintenance checklist duties are as follows:
- Check the water softener and refill with salt as necessary
- Clean the faucet aerators and showerheads to eliminate mineral deposits
- Check that indoor and outdoor air vents aren’t blocked
- Clean or change the filter on your air conditioner
- Clean the garbage disposal by grinding ice cubes and then rinsing with hot water and baking soda
- Deep clean your house
- Dust the surfaces in your home
- Examine bathtub and sink drains for debris, leaks, and clogs
- Flush your water heater with hot water to clear out sediment
- Remove and clean your dishwasher filter
- Survey electrical cords for wear
- Test fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, carbon monoxide detectors, and all ground-fault circuit interrupters
- Vacuum heat vents and heat registers
Quarterly Home Maintenance
Quarterly home maintenance only adds a few more chores to your Shaker Heights home maintenance checklist, yet it also goes a long way to safeguarding your house and your finances. To conduct quarterly home maintenance, you must tend to the following responsibilities every three months:
- Clean range hood vent
- Check water softener and add salt if necessary
- Descale coffee machine
- Run water in unused toilets and sinks
- Test garage door auto-reverse feature and make sure the electric eyes are positioned correctly
- Test all GFCI outlets to make sure they’re working properly
- Wash screens and windows
Seasonal Home Maintenance
As the seasons change in northeast Ohio, the needs of your home will change as well. Depending on the time of year, the weather will either pose new threats or present new opportunities for productivity. By adapting your regular Aurora home maintenance routine to the seasons, you can make the most of each year and help your home last for decades.
Spring Home Maintenance
The main priorities for Beachwood spring home maintenance include repairing winter damage, watching for spring flooding, and tidying up your home and garden.
Indoor Spring House Care
The specific tasks of indoor spring home maintenance include:
- Arrange for a professional to inspect and pump your septic tank
- Assess your chimney for damage and clean it if necessary
- Be on the lookout for signs of leaks in your plumbing
- Check the caulking on your sinks, showers, and bathtubs for deterioration and recaulk as needed
- Check your under-sink cabinets, bathroom tiles, and tile sealants for mold
- Clean the screens on your windows and doors, repair if necessary
- Clean the dryer vent
- Clear debris and leaves from gutters, downspouts, and window wells and make sure the gutters drain
- Dust light fixtures
- Install window unit air conditioners if you use them
- Polish wood furniture
- Repair or replace the weather stripping and caulking around doors, windows, and mechanicals
- Schedule servicing for your HVAC system
- Test your smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors
Outdoor Spring House Care
The duties of outdoor Macedonia spring home maintenance include:
- Evaluate your home’s façade and foundation for cracks or signs of pooling water
- Fertilize your lawn
- Get on the roof when it is safe and dry to check shingles, flashing, and vents for damage
- Give the exterior of your house a good cleaning
- Have your trees studied by a professional arborist
- Mulch your flowerbeds and beneath your hedges
- Look for missing, damaged, or loose shingles and leaks on your roof
- Open your pool back up for the summer by treating the water, checking and changing the valves and filters, and inspecting all of the equipment
- Plant perennials
- Power-wash your siding and windows
- Remove the insulation from your outdoor faucets and turn the faucets on, then check both the faucets and your sprinkler heads for damage
- Reseed your lawn
- Schedule a tune-up for your lawnmower
- Search internal and external walls for cracks, peeling paint, or nicks and paint over them
- Store your snowblower after draining the fuel or adding a stabilizer and checking and cleaning the motor and parts
- Sweep, clean, stain, and seal your deck
- Trim your trees
Summer Home Maintenance
Due to its pleasant weather, summer is the best time to tackle more ambitious projects such as exterior painting, building drainage systems, or finishing home improvement or home remodeling projects.
Indoor Summer House Care
Minor summer home maintenance chores you can do indoors include:
- Assess the condition of locks on doors and windows and replace as needed
- Clean the kitchen exhaust fan filter
- Clean the freezer and refrigerator coils and empty and clean the drip trays
- Check the areas around the kitchen and bathroom cabinets as well as the toilets for leaks
- Cover windows that receive morning or afternoon sun with drapes
- Ensure your disaster supply kit is stocked with batteries, canned food, medicines, bottled water, a first aid kit, and a battery-powered radio
- Examine your sump pump for any problems
- Inspect the dishwasher for leaks
- Install smart home tech
- Oil your garage door opener, your garage door chain, the garage door, and all the garage door hinges
- Remove the lint from outside and inside the dryer vents and washer hoses
- Reorganize and sweep out your garage
- Replace exterior and interior showerhead and faucet washers if necessary
- Reverse the setting on your ceiling fans to counterclockwise
- Seal all tile grout
- Talk to your local home services company about planned home improvement projects
- Take steps to reduce the risk of a pest infestation, such as sealing holes and monitoring the attic
Outdoor Summer House Care
The parts of summer home maintenance in Willoughby Hills that you’ll do outdoors are:
- Build a robust drainage system with catch basins in your yard
- Check your sprinkler system for clogs, leaks, pooling water, low pressure, broken timers, and dirty valves and resolve these issues as necessary
- Keep your pool clean
- Prune shrubs and trees
- Regularly dig up weeds, water plants, and deadhead flowers
- Repaint your home’s façade if desired
- Spray for bugs
- Trim around your outdoor HVAC unit
- Wrap your water heater with an insulation jacket
- Wash wood fences and apply sealant
Fall Home Maintenance
Fall home maintenance in Pepper Pike is all about preparing for winter, installing storm doors and windows, and cleaning the gutters. Additionally, fall home maintenance should involve doing several other indoor and outdoor chores.
Indoor Fall House Care
You can stay inside (mostly) to cross off these fall Hudson home maintenance checklist items:
- Check your windows and doors for drafts
- Check attic vents
- Clean your carpets
- Clean the dryer vent
- Exchange any old, drafty windows for more energy-efficient versions or install your storm windows
- Get your HVAC, forced-air heating system, furnace, and ductwork serviced
- Install storm windows and the glass panel on your storm door
- Hire a professional to clean your chimney
- Inspect your radiator and thermostat
- Investigate the fireplace for damage or problems and clean the fireplace flues
- Monitor the water heater for leaks
- Remove window unit air conditioners
- Reverse the setting on your ceiling fans to clockwise
- Scour your door and window screens
- Seal gaps or cracks around windows and doors with caulk or weather stripping or replace if necessary
- Search the house for any frayed cords or wires
- Set up a professional inspection of your fireplace
- Tend to all major home appliances before the holidays; repair as necessary
- Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
Outdoor Fall House Care
You’ll be able to enjoy the brisk fall air while completing these components of fall home maintenance:
- Cover your pool for the winter after cleaning and closing it
- Cover or store your outdoor furniture and grill
- Drain and winterize exterior plumbing
- Eliminate leaves and debris from all downspouts and gutters
- Fix gaps and cracks in the walkway and driveway
- Insulate outdoor faucets and pipes in unheated garages
- Look over exterior door hardware; fix loose locks and squeaky handles
- Plant perennials, trees, and shrubs
- Power-wash siding and windows
- Rake or mow over the leaves, then aerate the lawn
- Remove leaves and debris from garden ponds and water features
- Repair or replace broken siding
- Reseed your lawn
- Scrutinize roofing for loose, damaged, or missing shingles and leaks
- Shut your sprinkler system off, drain any water from the sprinkler system, and drain and store hoses
- Stock up on firewood
- Trim trees and shrubs away from the house
- Use paint to touch up exterior trim and siding
- Winterize your air conditioning unit
Winter Home Maintenance
The cold weather will keep you from taking on too much in the way of home maintenance, but winter home maintenance still requires you to focus on damage control, prevent ice dams, and keep the roof intact.
Indoor Winter House Care
You can stay warm and toasty to finish these indoor winter home maintenance assignments:
- Clean the drains in your tubs, shows, sinks, and dishwashers
- Prepare for a winter storm with extra firewood, gas for the snowblower, canned food, bottled water, and a complete emergency supply kit
- Purchase and/or prepare your generator
- Purchase or pull out your humidifier
- Stock up on ice melt
- Tighten interior and handles, knobs, racks, etc.
- Survey the basement for leaks during thaws
- Vacuum the grills in all bathroom exhaust fans
- Vacuum freezer and refrigerator coils and empty and clean the drip trays
Outdoor Winter House Care
You’ll have to brave the chilly Ohio winter to manage these outdoor winter home maintenance tasks:
- Close foundation vents
- Cover your air-conditioning unit
- Examine the downspouts, gutters, and roof for damage after storms
- Inspect the outside of your home regularly for signs of ice dams or icicles
- Make sure that the ground around your house is graded away from the house
- Monitor your electrical service drop and the line that leads from your home to the power pole. Call the electrical company if any large branches fall on the line or are hanging off it
- Pull out your snowblower and have it tuned up
- Secure exterior steps and handrails
- Shovel any snow in your driveway or walkway
Annual Home Maintenance
With annual home maintenance, you can oversee some of the bigger systems of your home. You can also shine a light on some of your house’s unseen or neglected areas. To stay up on your annual home maintenance, work through the following jobs once a year:
- Check for infestations
- Deep clean your basement
- Establish a family emergency plan and review it with your family
- Have your chimney inspected
- Have your boiler inspected
- Hire a professional to clean your heating and cooling ducts
- Replace the batteries in all smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Make sure that you have a smoke detector on every floor of your home, even the basement
- Seal tile grout
- Test your water heater’s pressure relief valve twice a year
- Test your electricity to the extent that you can
Long-Term Home Maintenance
Every 5-10 Years
Certain elements of your home weren’t designed to last forever. Therefore, every five to ten years, you should:
- Install a new dishwasher
- Paint the exterior of your home
- Replace the kitchen sink and microwave
Every 10-15 Years
If you’ve lived in your home for more than a decade, then it’s time to do the following:
- Install a new refrigerator and range
- Replace your hot water heater, garage door opener, and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
Beyond 15 Years
In order to equip your home for the long haul, you should knock out these errands after a decade and a half:
- Check your roofing material
- Install new HVAC units
- Replace kitchen and bathroom faucets and exterior decks
Home Maintenance Services for Northeast Ohio
Clearly, maintaining a home takes quite a bit of time and effort. While you don’t have to do it all in one day, you have to address all of the items on this Solon home maintenance checklist in order to sustain your house.
Or, you don’t. Instead of attempting to deal with every critical component of home maintenance every year, you could simply entrust your home to the care of a home services company such as BenchMark Home Services. With our home maintenance services, BenchMark (a branch of Capozzi Design Build) can handle every task on this home maintenance checklist expertly and efficiently. By putting your home maintenance in our hands, you’ll save yourself tons of time, effort, and stress. And you’ll still be an amazing homeowner!
So, don’t let this Twinsburg home maintenance checklist overwhelm you. Contact us about our home maintenance services today!