Home maintenance calendar

Jobs to think about through the year, season by season. Each line is taken from one of our guides and links to it, so you can read the whole advice and the sources it comes from.

Spring

Book the yearly check-up of the cooling system in spring, before contractors get busy once summer arrives. HVAC Contractors guide: how often · Find HVAC Contractors
Look the roof over from the ground or a ladder for cracked, warped or missing shingles, loose seams, worn flashing and granules in the gutters. Roofers guide: how often · Find Roofers
Look over large trees in early spring, before the leaves come out, when dead and broken branches are easiest to see. Tree Services guide: how often · Find Tree Services
Most trees are best pruned before new growth starts in spring, while flowering trees such as crabapples are pruned right after they bloom. Tree Services guide: how often · Find Tree Services
Before using an in-ground irrigation system again, inspect it for damage the frost may have done. Plumbers guide: how often · Find Plumbers
Spring brings the EPA's Fix a Leak Week, a good moment to read the water meter, use no water for two hours and read it again. Plumbers guide: how often · Find Plumbers
Inspect the dryer's lint trap and exhaust duct, a step on Pennsylvania's spring fire-safety list, and look at the outside opening for nesting birds. Dryer Vent Cleaning guide: how often · Find Dryer Vent Cleaning
Watch basements, doors and windowsills for swarming termites, whose shed wings are often the only sign they leave. Pest Control guide: how often · Find Pest Control
Clear out what winter left in the gutters and check them for standing water, where mosquitoes breed. Gutter Cleaning guide: how often · Find Gutter Cleaning
Before storm season, test smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, check that backup power works, and if a generator will feed the house wiring, have an electrician fit a transfer switch now, not during an outage. Electricians guide: how often · Find Electricians
Booking the chimney sweep in early spring, after the burning season, leaves time to fix what turns up and keeps clear of the nesting season of chimney swifts. Chimney Sweeps guide: how often · Find Chimney Sweeps
A Forest Service chemist names mid to late March, on a cool and cloudy day, as the time to clean a deck before refinishing it, though he wrote for Wisconsin. Pressure Washing guide: how often · Find Pressure Washing

Summer

Deal with a new wasp or yellowjacket nest early in summer while it is small, which is safer and easier than waiting until August or September. Pest Control guide: how often · Find Pest Control
Do not shut bats out of the house between May and August, when young bats can be trapped inside, and leave bat-proofing for fall or winter. Pest Control guide: how often · Find Pest Control
From May through July, look at night for carpenter ants foraging in the basement, attic and garage, and follow them back to their nest. Pest Control guide: how often · Find Pest Control
Through mosquito season, empty standing water from containers, birdbaths and pools every week. Pest Control guide: how often · Find Pest Control
In late summer, look at large trees again, when branches in leaf are easy to tell from dead ones and summer storms may have left broken limbs in the canopy. Tree Services guide: how often · Find Tree Services
Summer is the season of severe storms and, says the state insurance department, of contractor fraud, so a roof job booked now deserves every check however urgent it feels. Roofers guide: how often · Find Roofers
Read the yearly water quality report that community water systems must deliver by July 1. Plumbers guide: how often · Find Plumbers
Check the air filter every month and change it when it is dirty, most of all in summer and winter, when the system runs most. HVAC Contractors guide: how often · Find HVAC Contractors
Look at the dryer vent's outside opening again in early summer to catch a bird's nest before it blocks the vent. Dryer Vent Cleaning guide: how often · Find Dryer Vent Cleaning

Fall

Book the heating check-up before the cold arrives, and if you heat with gas or oil, treat it as the visit not to skip. HVAC Contractors guide: how often · Find HVAC Contractors
When the clocks change, check the carbon monoxide alarm batteries, the same reminder ENERGY STAR gives for booking the seasonal visit. HVAC Contractors guide: how often · Find HVAC Contractors
Have the chimney inspected, and swept if the inspection shows it needs it, before the first fire of the season. Chimney Sweeps guide: how often · Find Chimney Sweeps
Clean the gutters once the trees are bare, which in southeastern Pennsylvania can run into November. Gutter Cleaning guide: how often · Find Gutter Cleaning
Look the roof over again from the ground or a ladder, as the roofing contractors' association suggests doing each spring and fall. Roofers guide: how often · Find Roofers
Fall is a good time for a garage door inspection, because cold can thicken the lubricant and make metal parts contract. Garage Door Repair guide: how often · Find Garage Door Repair
Seal gaps and fit door sweeps in early autumn, before stink bugs come looking for a place to spend the winter. Pest Control guide: how often · Find Pest Control
Ticks are most active again in October and November, the state health department says. Pest Control guide: how often · Find Pest Control
Tree work booked in fall or winter may cost less, according to Penn State Extension. Tree Services guide: how often · Find Tree Services
A dryer vent cleaned in late fall goes into the snow months clear, and nobody has to reach the outlet through a drift. Dryer Vent Cleaning guide: how often · Find Dryer Vent Cleaning

Winter

Before the first hard freeze, wrap pipes in unheated areas and disconnect garden hoses, closing each outdoor faucet's inside valve and leaving the outside one open to drain. Plumbers guide: how often · Find Plumbers
If you go away in cold weather, leave the heat set no lower than 55 degrees, as the American Red Cross advises. Plumbers guide: how often · Find Plumbers
As winter approaches, make sure the gutters and downspouts are clear, so that they drain instead of filling with water that can freeze. Gutter Cleaning guide: how often · Find Gutter Cleaning
After snow, watch for a ridge of ice along the eaves and keep an eye on the ceilings, looking from the ground rather than climbing onto a winter roof. Roofers guide: how often · Find Roofers
After each snowstorm, check that the dryer's outside vent is clear of snow, most of all where the dryer burns gas. Dryer Vent Cleaning guide: how often · Find Dryer Vent Cleaning
Oaks are pruned in winter, apart from emergency repairs, because fresh cuts in the warmer months draw the beetles that spread oak wilt. Tree Services guide: how often · Find Tree Services
After an ice storm, look for broken branches caught in the canopy, which can fall without warning weeks later. Tree Services guide: how often · Find Tree Services
Plug a portable electric heater straight into a wall outlet, never a power strip, and never run its cord under a rug. Electricians guide: how often · Find Electricians
A wood stove that heats the house can need cleaning far more often than once a year, and an air-tight stove's stovepipe wants a check at least monthly in the heating season. Chimney Sweeps guide: how often · Find Chimney Sweeps
Garage door repairs often cost less in winter than in the busy spring and fall. Garage Door Repair guide: how often · Find Garage Door Repair