Monthly home maintenance checklist

Houses look after themselves for the first year or two after a refurbishment. Then things start to drift. Paint chips. Silicone goes mouldy. Gutters clog. Rubber seals perish. A little bit of work spread across the year is far less effort than spending a whole weekend in December trying to catch up with twelve months of neglect.

January: insulation and heating

The coldest month and the best time to notice where heat is escaping. Walk round the house with the heating on and feel for draughts around doors, windows, loft hatches, and letterboxes. Cold spots on walls. Condensation forming inside windows. Rooms that take noticeably longer to warm up than others.

Check the loft insulation is at least 270mm deep; anything less is worth topping up. If getting into the loft means a ladder, ask someone else to look. A bag of loft roll from a builder's merchant costs a few pounds per square metre. This is also a sensible month to book a boiler service if the system is showing its age.

February: smoke and carbon monoxide alarms

Press the test button on every alarm in the house. Smoke, carbon monoxide, the lot. Replace batteries in any non-sealed unit. Any alarm older than 10 years gets replaced entirely; the sensors degrade even when the test button still works. Write the install date on the alarm itself with a marker pen so you know when it is next due.

March: garden tidy and outdoor inspection

As the weather improves, walk round the outside. Check fences for loose posts and panels after winter winds. Look at pointing on brick and stone walls for gaps or crumbling mortar. Clear leaves and debris from drains and gullies. Check gates still open and close properly. This is the month to tackle fence repairs before climbing plants make them harder to reach.

April: gutters and downpipes

Gutters benefit from a second clear in spring, especially where there is heavy tree cover. Winter storms bring down twigs and moss, and the spring rain quickly exposes any blockage. Run a hose into the gutter and check the downpipes flow freely. Look at joints for signs of leaking. Any gutter sagging away from the fascia needs its brackets tightened or replaced.

May: outdoor paintwork and woodwork

May is the best month for outdoor painting. Warm enough for paint to dry properly but not so hot that it skins over before you can brush it out. Check the front door, window frames, bargeboards, fascias, soffits, fence panels, garden furniture. Touch up any flaked or peeling paint with primer and a matching topcoat. In an older house, old paint may contain lead, so don't dry-sand it. Rub down rusted metalwork (gate hinges, railings) with a wire brush and treat it before repainting.

June: window catches and locks

Windows get used more in summer, and this is the month faulty catches, handles, or locks tend to become obvious. Test that every window opens and closes smoothly. Lubricate hinges and sliding tracks with a dry PTFE spray (not ordinary WD-40, which attracts dirt). Check locks work and that keys are accounted for. Replace perished rubber seals on UPVC windows now, before they let in draughts come winter.

July: pressure washing and outside cleaning

The driest month is the right time to pressure wash patios, paths, decking, and driveways. Remove moss and algae before they make surfaces slippery in autumn. Be careful not to blast the pointing between stones or bricks; high pressure strips out old mortar. For stone patios in the Cotswolds, a low-pressure wash with a stiff brush and a patio cleaner is kinder to the surface. Good month to clean the outside of windows too.

August: hedges and borders

Trim hedges once the nesting season is over, usually from late August. Check for active nests first: disturbing one is against the law. Check they are not growing into gutters, overhanging footpaths, or blocking security lights. Prune shrubs that have finished flowering. Look for overgrown plants pressing against walls; damp stains behind climbing plants are often the first sign of trouble. A summer prune opens the wall up to air and reduces damp risk later in the year.

September: gutters again and draught-proofing

Book the autumn gutter clear for late October or early November, once most leaves are down. Check draught strips on doors: rubber strips perish over a year or two and brush strips get crushed flat. Replace any that have failed. Inspect door thresholds, especially front and back, where water seeps in during heavy rain.

October: bleed radiators and test heating

Turn the heating on for the first time. Let every radiator reach full temperature. Any that are cold at the top have trapped air and need bleeding with a radiator key. Any cold at the bottom have sludge building up, which is a plumber's job (power flush), not a handyman's. Check boiler pressure sits around 1.2 to 1.5 bar when cold. Book a boiler service now if you have not already.

November: lagging pipes and chimney sweep

Before the first hard frost, check exposed pipes are lagged. Loft, garage, cellar, exterior walls. Foam lagging costs a couple of pounds a metre and goes on in minutes. If you have a wood burner or open fire, book a chimney sweep before regular use starts; sweeps get booked up once the cold weather arrives. Put a bucket of rock salt by the back door.

December: emergency kit and holiday checks

The quiet week between Christmas and New Year is when boilers often break down and pipes freeze. Keep a simple kit in a kitchen drawer: a torch or battery lantern with fresh batteries, a list of numbers (105 for a power cut, boiler cover, insurance) and a note of where the stopcock is. Check the stopcock turns, gently. If it won't move, don't force it: an old one can snap and cause the leak it's meant to stop. A stopcock that will not move is useless when a pipe bursts.

Adapting the calendar

This order can shift by a month or two depending on where you are and what kind of home you have. Cotswold stone cottages need more attention to pointing and damp. Newbuilds need less outdoor painting but more attention to silicone around bathrooms. Flats need less garden and roof work but more care with window seals and shared drainage. The principle stays the same: a little each month, not a panic at the end of the year.

Most months on this list take under an hour. A couple (gutters, outdoor paint, chimney sweep) take a morning. The total across the year is roughly 15 to 20 hours, which sounds like a lot until you compare it with the cost of catching up once several things have gone wrong at once. Anything that needs a ladder, or that you'd rather not do, I can do for you: £55 for the first hour, then £35 an hour.