New homeowner maintenance: your first year in a house
Nobody hands you a manual with the keys. The previous owners knew where the water shut-off was and when the furnace was last serviced; you don’t, yet. Here’s what to learn and do first, in the order it matters.
Short answer
In week one, find and test the main water shut-off, label the electrical panel and gas shut-off, check the dates on every smoke and CO alarm, change the furnace filter and note its size. In your first season, learn the age of the water heater, furnace and roof, inspect the washing machine hoses, and watch where rain goes during a storm. Across the first year, book a furnace service before winter and an AC service before summer, and set up reminders so the recurring jobs don’t depend on your memory.
Get Gable Reminders for your house, no account, nothing leaves your phone.
Week one: the emergencies you need to be ready for
1. Find the main water shut-off, and make sure it turns
If a pipe bursts, this valve is the difference between a mop and a flooded floor. It’s usually where the water line enters the house, near the meter, often in a basement, crawlspace, utility room or garage. Close it, open a tap to confirm the water stops, then reopen it. Valves that haven’t moved in years can seize or snap, and it’s far better to find that out now than mid-flood. A plumber can replace a stuck one.
Gable’s library: “Two minutes vs thousands in water damage while you search for a valve that will not turn.”
2. Label the electrical panel and gas shut-off
Check that the breaker labels match reality: flip one, see what goes off, and fix the label. Find the gas meter’s shut-off, and learn from your gas utility when you should and shouldn’t use it. Show every adult in the house where all three shut-offs are.
3. Date every smoke and CO alarm
Take each alarm down and read the date on the back. Smoke alarms get replaced at 10 years; CO alarms at their printed end of life, often 5–7 years. Missing dates mean “replace now”. Then test them all. Details: how often to test and replace smoke and CO alarms.
4. Change the furnace filter
You don’t know when it was last done, so do it now. Write the size down and the date on the frame. See how often to change it.
First season: learn what you own
- Find the age of the big systems. The water heater, furnace, AC and roof are the expensive ones. Heaters and furnaces carry a data plate with a model and serial number, and the manufacture date is usually encoded in the serial. The manufacturer’s website or support line can decode it. Your inspection report and the seller’s disclosures often list roof and system ages too.
- Make a list of what the house has: gutters, a sump pump, septic or city sewer, a well, a fireplace, a deck, a garage door opener, a tank or tankless water heater, sprinklers, a pool. That list decides which jobs apply to you, and it’s what Gable asks for.
- Inspect the washing machine hoses. Rubber supply hoses fail without warning and flood at full water pressure. If they’re cracked, bulging or more than about five years old, swap them for braided stainless steel.
- Watch a heavy rain from outside. Do gutters overflow? Do downspouts dump water beside the wall? Does water pool against the foundation? Rain tells you more about the house than any dry-day walkaround.
- Re-read the inspection report. Most reports have a list of “monitor” and “repair soon” items that get forgotten after closing. Put the real ones on your schedule.
First year: set the rhythm
- Furnace or boiler service before winter, and AC or heat pump service before summer. A technician catches cracked heat exchangers, failing parts and refrigerant problems that no filter change will.
- Seasonal jobs in their windows: gutters in spring and fall, outdoor taps before the freeze, the sump pump before the thaw.
- Yearly jobs you won’t notice until they fail: flushing the water heater, cleaning the dryer vent — plus testing the garage door’s auto-reverse twice a year.
- Keep a log with the date, what was done, who did it and what it cost. It helps with warranty claims, with the next service visit, and when you eventually sell.
How much to budget
A widely quoted rule of thumb is to set aside 1–4% of the home’s value a year for maintenance and repairs. Aim toward the high end for older houses and in harsh climates. Most years you won’t spend it all; the savings are for the year the water heater or the roof goes. Small, regular jobs are what keep those years rare.
Don’t try to do everything in month one
A full home maintenance list runs to dozens of jobs, and many only matter in one season. The complete checklist groups them by spring, fall and year-round. Do the week-one safety items now, then take each job when its window comes around.
Start your house’s schedule on day one
Answer three questions and tick what your house has — furnace, gutters, sump pump, septic, a tank water heater — and Gable builds the plan for this season, with why each job matters and what skipping it costs. No account; your plan stays on your phone.
