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Maintenance Checklist

The Florida home maintenance year.

Generic homeowner checklists are written for houses with basements and four real seasons. This one is for a house that sits in heat, humidity, hard water and a hurricane season, which is a different maintenance problem entirely.

The Florida home maintenance year.

Generic homeowner checklists are written for houses with basements and four real seasons. This one is for a house that sits in heat, humidity, hard water and a hurricane season — which is a different maintenance problem. It saves your progress in this browser.

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Winter

December – February

Spring

March – May

Summer

June – August

Fall

September – November

The two that actually cost people money. Roof age and water leaks. Florida insurers are non-renewing policies over roof age alone, and they deny slow-leak water damage as a maintenance failure rather than a covered loss. Everything else on this list is worth doing; those two are worth doing on time.

If something here needs a person rather than a Saturday, I have crews who do this work for the rental homes we manage — cleaners, handymen, AC, roofing, pool. Ask and I will send you a name, whether or not you are buying or selling anything.

Common questions

About maintaining a house in Florida

What breaks first in a Florida house?
The air conditioning, and it is not close. An AC system here runs most of the year and typically lasts 10 to 15 years rather than the 20 it might manage further north. After that: the roof, where shingles age fast under UV and afternoon storms; the water heater, which hard water shortens; and anything wooden with ground contact, because humidity and termites are permanent conditions rather than occasional events.
When should I service the AC?
Twice a year, and the important one is spring — before the first genuinely hot week, not during it, when every technician in the county is booked. Change filters every one to three months depending on pets and household size, and keep the condensate line clear. A blocked condensate line is the cheapest possible repair and one of the most common causes of interior water damage in Florida homes.
What should I do before hurricane season?
Season runs June through November, and the work belongs in May. Check that shutters or panels are present, complete and actually fit the openings they are labelled for. Trim anything that could reach the roof. Clear gutters and drains. Photograph every room for your insurer while nothing is wrong — that record is worth far more than the ten minutes it takes. And read your policy for the hurricane deductible, which is a percentage of the insured value rather than a flat figure and is usually much larger than owners remember.

Keep going

The other calculators

Mortgage Payment

Principal, interest, reassessed taxes, Florida insurance, PMI and the HOA/CDD stack — the whole payment, not the advertised part.

Run the numbers →

Affordability

Solve for the price from a payment you are genuinely comfortable with, rather than from what a lender will approve.

Run the numbers →

Extra Payments

Years off the loan and interest avoided, from whatever extra you can genuinely put in each month.

Run the numbers →
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Serving
Orange, Osceola & Polk Counties, Florida

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