Table of Contents
Home Maintenance Guide
Dreaming of never having to deal with an emergency home repair or stressful breakdown again?
Welcome to homeownership. It’s awesome. But with your new house likely comes a garage full of stuff you don’t know how to use and yearly maintenance responsibilities no one warns you about. And those maintenance responsibilities can pile up fast…
Especially if you’re a first-time homeowner.
Hippo’s annual report found that 83% of homeowners experienced an unexpected repair last year. That’s almost double the 45% who dealt with surprise repairs in 2023.
The expenses that come along with these repairs are no joke. They hit homeowners at the worst time.
Luckily, there’s a simple solution.
Regular home maintenance is typically all it takes to prevent these large, expensive emergency repairs from happening. You just need to know what to do.
What you’ll learn:
- Why Home Maintenance Is Important
- Home Maintenance Checklist
- HVAC Maintenance Tips
- Cleaning Your Air Conditioner Coils
- Home Maintenance Tasks By Season
Why Home Maintenance Is Important
If you don’t maintain your home, it’s going to start falling apart.
Okay, that’s a bit dramatic. But not by much.
It doesn’t take long for small maintenance issues to turn into big-ticket bills. Appliance lifespans decrease, water damage spreads, and structural problems develop.
Maintenance keeps a home functioning properly…and looks nice too.
Let’s use HVAC maintenance as an example.
Some HVAC service tasks, like air conditioner coil cleaning, are easy to overlook. When the air conditioner coil gets too dirty, it makes the system work harder than it needs to.
Not only does this waste energy (costing you more money), but it also puts extra stress on the equipment. Proper ac maintenance prevents breakdowns and extends the system’s lifespan.
Remember how we said the average homeowner can expect to pay for one major unexpected repair in 2025?
Neglecting HVAC maintenance can increase system energy use by up to 25%, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
Just HVAC energy costs.
Think about all the other systems in your home.
Keeping your home in good shape requires regular inspection and maintenance of all of your systems. You should know what they are and how to take care of them. We’ll get to that later…
Home Maintenance Checklist
Homeownership can be overwhelming at first. What then should you do with your time and money?
Don’t worry about trying to figure out every little thing that needs touching up around the house. As a homeowner, start with these maintenance basics:
- HVAC filter replacement
- Cleaning out the gutters
- Water heater flush
- Smoke detector battery replacement
- Caulking/seal check
Stick to these basics monthly, yearly, or as often as they’re recommended, and your home should be in good shape. Simple.
Homeowners tend to make the mistake of waiting for a system to break before repairing it.
And then they wonder why maintenance costs so much.
Research shows that about 85% of all HVAC repairs are due to a lack of maintenance.
Talk about expensive.
Instead of taking your home from working to broken, be proactive with your maintenance.
Set reminders on your phone or keep a calendar of seasonal maintenance tasks. That’s exactly what we’re doing below.
HVAC Maintenance Tips
Heating and cooling shouldn’t be neglected.
The HVAC system is one of your biggest monthly expenses as a homeowner. Not to mention when it goes out, it almost always does so at the worst possible time.
If your air conditioner breaks down during a heat wave or your heat stops working in the middle of a Polar Vortex, you’ll wish you spent the time and money preventing it from happening.
Don’t wait until your system is dead to keep it maintained.
- Replace/clean the HVAC filters.
- Keep outdoor units clear of debris.
- Schedule professional HVAC tune-ups twice per year.
- Annual air conditioner coil cleaning and clear those dryer vents.
- Check the refrigerant levels and ductwork for leaks.
How do you clean your air conditioner coils?
These are some of the most important things you can do for your HVAC system. Did you know improper cleaning of your air conditioner coil could actually reduce system efficiency by up to 37%?
Clean coils improve efficiency by up to 46%.
Clean your AC regularly, and you could see noticeable savings on your monthly utility bills.
But you’re not…
Just 30% of Americans make time for their HVAC systems’ preventive maintenance.
You shouldn’t be part of that statistic.
The average homeowner pays $200 per year for professional HVAC maintenance. Repair bills are usually much higher, at $350 on average. Or consider how much a full replacement costs. We’re talking $8,000 to $15,000!
Doesn’t take a math whiz to figure out that preventive maintenance will pay for itself time and time again.
Home Maintenance Tasks By Season
Dividing up home maintenance tasks by season is another foolproof way to make sure your home never falls into disrepair. Here are a few things to keep in mind for each season.
Spring Home Maintenance
Be sure to watch out for the following:
- Check the roof for damage
- Check the foundation for cracks
- Inspect AC units
- Wash windows
- Check outdoor irrigation
Summer Home Maintenance
Landscaping and outdoor living areas are the big priorities during the summer months:
- Landscape away from the home’s foundation
- Clean and inspect the deck/patio
- Look for pest signs around the house
- Monitor indoor humidity
Fall Home Maintenance
Get your house ready to hunker down:
- Service heater
- Cleaning out gutters
- Seal cracks in windows/doors
- Drain garden hoses
- Check door weatherstripping
Winter Home Maintenance
You’ll be spending more time indoors. Make sure you keep an eye out for these things:
- Check for ice dams on the roof
- Keep walks clear of snow/debris
- Test carbon monoxide detectors
- Reverse ceiling fans
- Insulate outdoor pipes from freezing
Budgeting Tips For First-Time Homeowners
Home maintenance isn’t free. And it can really add up if you let it.
Some financial experts advise setting aside between one and three percent of your home’s value annually to pay for upkeep and repairs.
That means if you just bought a $400,000 house, you’ll want to budget $4,000 to $12,000 annually.
Yikes.
But here’s the thing. Neglecting your home won’t make maintenance cheaper. It will only cause your maintenance expenses to grow over time.
Take care of your home correctly the first time, and you’ll save yourself a bunch of headaches (and money) down the road.
Here are a few tips to keep home maintenance affordable:
- Learn how to do some maintenance yourself
- Look for bundles on maintenance services
- Stay disciplined and keep prioritizing
- Always get multiple quotes
Remember how we said staying on top of home maintenance was easy? Here’s your reminder.
Your Home Maintenance Cheat Sheet
Here’s everything you should know about home maintenance as a first-time homeowner:
- Your home has working systems that need regular maintenance.
- Home maintenance is important because it keeps your house functioning properly.
- Stick to maintaining the basics. Filters, sealant, smoke detectors, gutters, and water heaters are crucial.
- HVAC maintenance is important because heating and cooling cost you the most money.
- Complete home maintenance tasks depend on the season and can be split up throughout the year.
Congratulations on becoming a homeowner!
Home maintenance is just one responsibility of many you’ll have to learn as a homeowner. So what did you do the first time you got your car?
You learned how to drive it. Ask questions, read the manual, and learn what maintenance tasks your home needs.
Then, create your free maintenance schedule and start checking things off the list.