The seasonal home maintenance checklist
Most home maintenance lists fail for the same reason: they are enormous, undated, and written as though you have a free weekend every week. This one is organised by season, ordered by consequence, and honest about what can slide.
Adjust for your climate. A house in a cold climate has a different winter list from one that never freezes, and some of these jobs are irrelevant depending on what you own.
Spring
The season for undoing winter and getting ahead of summer.
- Clear the gutters and downspouts. The highest-consequence job on this entire page. Blocked gutters put water against the foundation, which is how basements flood and how expensive problems start.
- Inspect the roof from the ground. Binoculars are fine. Look for lifted, cracked or missing shingles and damaged flashing.
- Check the grading around the house. Soil should slope away from the foundation. Settling over winter is common.
- Test the sump pump. Pour a bucket of water into the pit and confirm it kicks in. Spring melt is the worst possible time to discover it does not.
- Service the air conditioner before the first hot week, when every technician is booked solid.
- Reconnect and check outdoor taps for split pipes from freezing.
- Clean the dryer vent — the duct to the outside, not just the lint trap. This is a genuine fire risk and it is widely skipped.
Summer
The season for the outdoor jobs that need dry weather.
- Wash and inspect exterior siding and trim. Look for rot, especially where wood meets ground or water runs.
- Reseal decks and fences if they need it — typically every two to three years.
- Check window and door seals, and caulk where it has cracked.
- Trim vegetation back from the house. Branches touching siding or roof cause damage and give pests a bridge.
- Clean the range hood filter and other extractor fans.
- Inspect the driveway and walkways for cracks; sealing them before winter stops freeze-thaw from widening them.
Autumn
The most important season on the list, because everything you skip here becomes a winter emergency.
- Clear the gutters again, after the leaves are down. Doing this too early means doing it twice.
- Service the furnace before the first cold snap, for the same reason as the air conditioner in spring.
- Change the furnace filter and set the interval for the heating season — see how often to change a furnace filter.
- Shut off and drain outdoor taps and disconnect hoses. A burst pipe behind a wall is one of the most expensive things on this page.
- Test smoke and carbon monoxide alarms and replace batteries.
- Have the chimney inspected and swept if you burn wood.
- Seal drafts around doors, windows and outlets.
- Check attic insulation and ventilation — poor ventilation causes ice dams.
Winter
Mostly watching rather than doing.
- Watch for ice dams along the roof edge after heavy snow.
- Keep vents and exhausts clear of snow, particularly furnace and dryer exhausts. Blocked exhausts are a carbon monoxide risk.
- Check the basement after thaws for water.
- Test the sump pump again if you get mid-winter melts.
- Run bathroom fans longer to control condensation.
Jobs on their own clock
These do not fit a season and are easiest handled as intervals:
| Job | Typical interval |
|---|---|
| Furnace filter | 1–12 months, by thickness |
| Test smoke & CO alarms | Monthly to quarterly |
| Replace smoke alarm batteries | Annually |
| Replace smoke alarms entirely | About every 10 years |
| Replace CO detectors entirely | About every 5–7 years |
| Flush the water heater | Annually |
| Clean the dryer vent duct | Annually |
| Deep clean the dishwasher filter | Every 1–3 months |
| Reseal deck / fence | Every 2–3 years |
| Septic tank inspection / pump | Every 3–5 years |
Doing it without a spreadsheet
The trick is not the list, it is the recurrence. A seasonal checklist you have to remember to consult is a checklist you will consult twice and then forget. The same list as a set of repeating reminders — each one restarting its countdown when you mark it done — keeps working without any further effort from you.
Start with the five jobs whose failure costs the most: gutters, sump pump, dryer vent, outdoor taps before frost, and smoke alarms. Add the rest as you go.
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