Summer is upon us, and after a year of living you’ve probably started finding things in your home that aren’t working at their best.  Taking care of your home is often more involved than new homeowners realize.  We’re used to calling to a landlord or apartment office for repairs.  Likewise, regular maintenance is often covered by whoever owns the building.  When you switch to owning your own home, keeping a regular maintenance schedule is important, but often overlooked.

It’s helpful to keep a maintenance checklist, calendar, or logbook to make sure that your home’s upkeep is maintained. 

Monthly

Regular maintenance can be broken down into work that needs to be completed monthly, quarterly, and at least once a year.  So what should you be doing on a month-to-month basis?

Inspect air filters. This filters typically only need to be changed out every 3-6 months, but if it’s been a while, or you’ve had an especially dusty or pollen-filled month then it might help to replace the filter early.  If you can’t recall when the last time you replace the filter was, replace it anyway (they’re inexpensive) and write the current date on the filter frame so you’ll know for next time.  While you’re cleaning out your air filters, check the filters in your oven range hood, clogged filters will make it much harder for strong food smells and smoke to be carried away.

Clean the sink and garbage disposal. Sinks suffer from a lot of use and abuse, so it’s best to clean them regularly.  To clear your garbage disposal, stopper it up and fill the sink with 2 or more inches of warm water.  Mix in a little dish soap and then unstop the drain.  The warm water will warm grease and the mixture of dish soap will clean out the sink drain itself.  To clean out tough sludge, mix ice and salt and grind it up in your disposal.  Use ice cubes made from vinegar for added cleaning and better smelling drains.

Check fire extinguishers and smoke and CO detectors each month.  While you might be ok with a quarterly inspection of your smoke detectors, it’s an easy inspection and worth doing monthly for the sake of safety.

Quarterly

Run water and flush toilets in guest rooms. Unused spaces such as guest bathrooms can be left with pooled and stagnant water.  Flushing toilets and running faucets for a few seconds will relieve excess pressure and clean out stagnating water for better pipe and plumbing health.

Check the water softener.  If your home has issues with hard water, you may have already noticed a change.  Every 3 months you should double-check the water softener to make sure it’s still functioning and that it doesn’t need a refill on softener.  If you’re home lacks a water softener, it may be a good idea to inspect your home for hard water.  Look for stains, faucet and spigot calcifications, and soap that won’t lather.  Alternatively, pick up a water hardness test kit.

Annually

Have your plumbing inspected.  Look for leaks, broken faucets, and damaged aerators.  Changing weather conditions, winter freezes, and spring showers can all affect your plumbing.  Broken pipes and loose joints can be created when a house’s foundation changes due to storms or when pipes expand due to freezing.

Clean refrigerator coils.  Just like your air conditioner – which you should be receiving a tune-up and cleaning for every 6 months – your refrigerator coils need to be cleaned.  Removing dust and dirt from the coils will improve refrigeration and help you save money on energy costs because the refrigerator won’t need to work as hard to move heat away from the interior.

Metro Plumbing, Heating, and Air Conditioning is the service company you want!  Call us today at (423) 616-1025!