First-time homeowner maintenance: what to do in your first week, month and 90 days

Start with the things you would need in an emergency. Find the main water shut-off, the gas shut-off and the main electrical switch, label them, and test every smoke and carbon monoxide alarm. These jobs cost almost nothing, need no special skill, and matter more than anything else on a new owner’s list.

The order of the whole plan follows one rule: safety first, then information, then routine. You cannot schedule maintenance for equipment you have not found, and you cannot judge what is urgent until you know how old things are.

That is why the first week is about locating and testing, the first month is about recording and booking, and the rest of the 90 days is about small jobs and a schedule.

It has three stages. The first week covers shut-offs and alarms. The rest of the first month covers an equipment record, warranties and the professional visits a new owner should book. Days 31 to 90 cover the small jobs you can do yourself and the schedule that keeps all of it repeating.

The table below is the whole plan on one screen. The sections after it explain each stage. The day ranges are a guide for pacing, not a deadline: if you move in during a cold snap, the heating service moves up.

Walk the house with your phone and find every shut-off: water, gas, electricity, and the valves on the water heater or boiler. Photograph and label each one. Then press the test button on every smoke and carbon monoxide alarm, read the manufacture date on the back, and replace any that are past their date.

Find and label the shut-offs

A burst pipe is not the moment to go looking for a valve. Find each of these now, photograph it, and label it with tape and a marker so anyone in the house can find it.

• Main water shut-off. It is normally close to where the supply pipe enters the building. Turn it off and on once to confirm it moves, then add a six-monthly check using the guide on how often to test the main shut-off.
• Water heater or boiler valves. Find the cold-water valve on the inlet, and the gas valve on the supply pipe if the unit burns gas.
• Gas shut-off at the meter. Know where it is, but do not practise with it. Ask your gas supplier or a qualified gas engineer how and when to use it.
• Electrical panel or consumer unit. Find the main switch and check that the circuits are labelled. If the labels are missing or wrong, ask an electrician to identify the circuits.
• Furnace or boiler switch and filter. Note the filter size, which is printed on the frame of the current filter.
• Sump pump, septic access and well equipment, if the house has them.

Test every alarm and read its date

The US Fire Administration’s smoke alarm guidance says to test alarms monthly and to replace the whole alarm every 10 years. It also says to put alarms on every level of the home, and inside and outside each bedroom and sleeping area. Count what the seller left against that list.

For carbon monoxide, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s carbon monoxide guidance says to install alarms on every level of the home and outside sleeping areas. Carbon monoxide alarms wear out too, and the lifespan differs by model, so follow the replace-by date printed on the unit. Maintainly’s task library defaults to 5 years.

Alarm rules differ by country, state and province, so check your local fire service’s requirements as well. The guide on how often to replace smoke alarms covers the regional detail.

Build a record of the house and book the checks you cannot do yourself. Photograph the data plate on every appliance and system, file the warranties and manuals, and collect any service records from the seller. Then book a heating service, and a chimney or septic inspection if the house has either.

Record everything with a model number

Every major appliance and system carries a data plate with a brand, model and serial number. Photograph each one: furnace or boiler, air conditioner, water heater, cooker, refrigerator, dishwasher, washer, dryer, garage door opener, sump pump and water softener.

The plate often shows a manufacture date. If it does not, the manufacturer can usually tell you the age from the serial number. Knowing the age of each unit shows you which ones to watch and which warranties are still live. Register anything still under warranty and keep the paperwork in one place.

Ask the seller, or check the disclosure documents and the survey, for four dates: the last heating service, the last roof work, the last septic pump-out, and any radon test. The post on home maintenance records that help you sell explains why these are worth keeping from the first day.

Book the professional visits

A new owner rarely needs many trades in the first month. These three cover the systems where a fault is dangerous or expensive.

• Heating service. ENERGY STAR’s maintenance checklist recommends a yearly pre-season check-up by a contractor, with the heating system checked in the fall. In Great Britain, the Health and Safety Executive’s advice for home owners is to have gas appliances serviced at least annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer. If the seller has no recent record, book one using the guide on how often to service a furnace.
• Chimney inspection, if there is a fireplace or stove you plan to use. The Chimney Safety Institute of America cites the US standard NFPA 211, which calls for chimneys, fireplaces and vents to be inspected at least once a year. Have it inspected before you light the first fire.
• Septic inspection, if the house has a tank. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s septic care page says a typical household system should be inspected at least every three years by a septic service professional, and that tanks are typically pumped every three to five years.

With the emergencies covered and the professionals booked, the second month is for small recurring jobs: the heating and cooling filter, the dryer vent, the refrigerator coils, a leak test on each toilet, and a look at the gutters and the ground around the house. Most need only a screwdriver and a vacuum.

You do not know when the previous owner last did any of these, so treat each one as overdue and do it once. That gives every job a known start date.

• Replace the heating and cooling filter. ENERGY STAR says to inspect, clean or change air filters once a month. Maintainly’s task library uses a default of 2 months, with an accepted range of 1 to 3. See the guide on how often to replace a furnace filter.
• Clean the dryer vent from the back of the dryer to the outside wall, if you have a vented dryer.
• Vacuum the refrigerator coils and check that the door seals close firmly.
• Test each toilet for a silent leak. The EPA WaterSense leak guidance says to put a few drops of food colouring in the tank; if colour shows in the bowl after 10 minutes, there is a leak. The guide on how often to check a toilet flapper explains the fix.
• Look in the gutters from the ground or a window, and check where the downspouts discharge. Hire someone for anything that needs a ladder you are not confident on.
• Walk round the outside after heavy rain and note anywhere water pools against the walls. Photograph it, so you can show a builder or drainage contractor if it keeps happening.

Give every recurring job an interval and a reminder. By day 90 you know what the house has and when each job was last done, so each one can go on a calendar or into an app with its next due date. After that, maintenance arrives as a reminder and no longer depends on memory.

The table shows the default intervals in Maintainly’s task library for the jobs in this plan. They are starting points. Your appliance manuals, your climate and local rules can all call for something shorter.

A paper calendar or a shared digital calendar will do the job if you keep it up. The post on building a home maintenance schedule that survives real life covers how to keep one going, and the full list of maintenance guides has an interval page for each task.

This is also the time to order a radon test in the countries where it is advised. The regional notes below give the details.

Renovation can wait. Painting, a new kitchen or a new bathroom are the jobs most new owners want to start with, but none of them is urgent. Get the safety checks, the equipment record and the schedule in place first, then decide where the renovation money should go.

There are two reasons to hold off. The first is that the first three months turn up things the viewing did not: a damp patch, a circuit that trips, a heater near the end of its life. Any of these can change where the money needs to go.

The second is that living in a house through a change of season shows you what you want to alter. A plan made on moving day is made with the least information you will ever have about the house.