Spring home maintenance checklist

Why spring matters

Winter is hard on a house. Freeze and thaw works through the small cracks. Moisture finds its way in. Things settle. Spring is when you take stock, undo the small damage before it becomes big damage, and get the house ready for the season when you'll actually be outside enjoying it.

The list below isn't long. None of it takes long. Skip what doesn't apply to your house.

Outside

The exterior took the brunt of the winter. Walk it slowly.

• Gutters and downspouts. Clean them out. Winter dropped a lot in there, and the spring rains will overwhelm clogged gutters fast. If water can't drain away from the house, it ends up in the basement or against the foundation.
• Roof check. From the ground with binoculars, or from a ladder if you're comfortable. Look for missing shingles, lifted edges, anything that's clearly not where it was last fall. Most roof problems are easy to fix when you catch them early.
• Walk the foundation. Look for cracks, especially any new ones. A small crack in concrete isn't urgent. A new crack that wasn't there before is worth a closer look.
• Caulk and seal. Walk around the windows and exterior doors. Caulk that's pulled away or cracked needs redoing. Same for any siding seams. This is small, cheap, and it's what keeps water out.
• Outdoor faucets. Turn them on. If a faucet hisses and spits, or doesn't flow well, the pipe behind it may have frozen and split over winter. Better to know now than when you're connecting the hose.
• Deck and fence. Look for loose boards, popped nails, rot at ground contact, anything wobbly. If the deck needs sealing or staining, plan it for a dry stretch.
• Driveway and walkways. Cracks that fill with water and freeze get worse fast. A bag of crack sealer is cheap; a new driveway is not.

Inside

The house was sealed up for months. Time to flip the switch.

• Smoke and CO detectors. Test them. Replace any batteries. Twice a year is the standard cadence, and spring/fall is the easy way to remember.
• HVAC filter. Change it. The furnace ran hard all winter; the filter is full. If you're switching from heat to AC, this is also when you want the system to start clean. See the filter guide.
• Run the AC briefly. Before the first hot day. Turn it on for 15 minutes, listen, feel the air. If something's wrong, you want to know now, not when it's 95°F and the repair backlog is two weeks.
• Bath fans. Run them. Make sure they actually move air. Bathroom moisture you don't vent ends up in walls.
• Windows. Open every window. Let the house breathe. Check the screens; tears are easy to patch now.

Systems

Spring is the natural time for the warm-season service appointment.

• AC service. Annual or every other year, depending on the system age and your tolerance. A technician will clean the coil, check refrigerant, and catch anything starting to fail. Cheaper than a repair in July.
• Water heater flush. If you haven't in a year. Sediment builds up at the bottom of the tank and makes the heater work harder. Flushing is a 15-minute job most homeowners can do themselves.
• Sump pump. Test it. Pour a bucket of water in the pit until it kicks on. If it doesn't, you want to know before the first big rain.

Outside, again

Plants and yard work isn't really maintenance, but a few items belong here:

• Trees. Walk the trees near the house. Any branches over the roof? Any dead limbs hanging? Trim what you can; call an arborist for what you can't.
• Mulch and beds. Refresh the mulch around the foundation. Keep it a few inches off the siding (mulch against siding rots siding).
• Irrigation, if you have it. Turn it on and walk the system. Heads broken over the winter need replacing. Better to find a leak now than discover it in July when the bill arrives.

What you can skip

Not everything labeled "spring maintenance" actually matters every year:

• Pressure-washing the whole exterior. If the house looks fine, it's fine. Pressure-washing can damage siding if done wrong. Spot-clean what's actually dirty.
• Deep-cleaning the dryer vent. Worth doing, but not necessarily every spring. Annually is enough for most homes.
• Re-sealing the driveway. Once every few years for asphalt, longer for concrete. Sealcoat too often and you're spending money for nothing.

Putting it together

The full list looks long. In practice, most of it is a walk around the house with a notebook and a couple of focused half-days for the actual work. Spread it over two or three weekends in April or May and you're done.

If you want this to happen on its own next year (and every year after), Stell keeps the recurring stuff on the timeline. Spring tasks show up in spring; fall tasks show up in fall. See also the fall checklist for the other half of the year.