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Home maintenance Your first year in a new house.

A new house needs different upkeep than a resale, and most of it happens in the first twelve months while the building is still drying out and the warranty is still open. These are the tasks a homeowner can do, how often they actually need doing on a Central Florida build, and the point at which the job belongs to somebody licensed.

Book an inspection The 11-month inspection

Start a photo log the week you move in.

A folder on your phone is enough. Every time you notice something, a crack, a stain, a door that has started to stick, take a picture with the date visible and drop it in. Items below marked log are the ones worth a photo. They are the conditions that change over the first year, and the ones your builder will ask about. At your 11-month warranty inspection, that folder becomes your evidence.

Your warranty clock usually starts at closing, not on January 1. Whatever month you move in, count from that date.

Everything on this page can be done from the ground or a step stool. Anything that needs a ladder or an attic, call a licensed professional.

The first year, counted from closing.

Build the baseline

Photograph and date everything as you find it: doors, windows, cabinets, drywall seams, nail pops, and the exterior on all four sides. Everything later is measured against this.

Month 3

First walk against the baseline

Doors and windows that have started to stick, new drywall cracks, anything staining or spreading. Photograph, date, add to the list.

Month 6

Second walk

The same walk again. If a summer has passed, pay attention to what the heat and the rain did.

Month 10

Schedule the inspection

Book the 11-month warranty inspection now, so there is room to inspect, receive the report and submit the list before the year closes. Book an inspection.

Month 11

Inspect and submit

We inspect and deliver the report. You submit your warranty request to the builder in writing, before the one-year date.

After the year

The routine carries on

The tasks and the Florida calendar below do not stop at month twelve. What changes is that the first-year workmanship warranty has usually closed, so most items that turn up after that date are yours to deal with rather than the builder's. Check your warranty documents for anything with longer coverage.

All year round, whatever the month.

Every 3 months

Replace the air filter, more often with pets in the house.
Flush the air conditioning condensate line.
Add anything new to the photo log whenever you see it.

Every 6 months

Open every sink cabinet and check the supply lines, shutoff valves and drain trap for drips, corrosion, or a swollen cabinet floor. Run the faucet while you look. log
Check every toilet. A few drops of food coloring in the tank, wait 15 minutes, and if color shows in the bowl the flapper is leaking. Check the base for moisture or rocking, and that the tank refills and stops. log
Run each shower and tub and watch the drain. Clear anything slow before it becomes a clog.

The tasks, card by card.

What the 11-month visit covers

Cooling

Air filter at the return

The filter behind the return grille loads faster in a new house than the box it came in suggests. Drywall dust and sawdust from the build stay in the ductwork and in the house for months after closing, and they end up here.

How often: Every 3 months, more often with pets in the house
How: Check it sooner when pollen is heavy, and sooner again in a house that has just been finished. Note the airflow arrow on the frame, which points toward the air handler. Slide the old filter out, match the size printed on its edge, and slide the new one in facing the same direction.
Call a licensed professional when: Airflow is weak with a clean filter in place, or there is ice on the refrigerant lines at the outdoor unit.
Worth knowing: A restricted filter can freeze the coil. A no-cool call traced back to a filter that was never changed is not usually treated as a warranty item, so keep the receipts.

Cooling

Air conditioning condensate line

An air handler pulls moisture out of the air and drains it away through a small PVC line. In Florida humidity that line runs almost continuously through the summer, and growth inside it is the most common reason it backs up.

How often: Every 3 months, and again in May before the rains
How: Find the capped fitting on the PVC near the air handler. Take the cap off, pour in about a cup of distilled white vinegar, and replace the cap. Then step outside and confirm the line is dripping while the system runs.
Call a licensed professional when: There is water in the secondary drain pan, the float switch has shut the system down, or flow does not return after a flush.
Worth documenting: A stain on the ceiling below an air handler should be photographed with the date. It belongs on the list for the 11-month warranty inspection.

Kitchen

Range hood filter

The metal mesh panels under a range hood catch grease before it reaches the fan and the duct behind it. They are designed to be removed and washed.

How often: Monthly if you cook most evenings, quarterly otherwise
How: The panels release with a tab or a slide. Soak them in hot water with a degreasing dish soap, scrub, and let them dry completely before putting them back. Most are dishwasher safe.
Call a licensed professional when: The fan is loud or rattles, or cooking smells linger in the room. Both usually point at the duct or the damper rather than the filter.
Worth checking once: Confirm the hood actually vents outdoors rather than recirculating. Where the approved plans called for a ducted hood, a recirculating one is a builder item, not a maintenance task.

Laundry

Dryer vent and duct

The lint screen is only the first stage. The duct behind the dryer and the flap on the outside wall collect everything the screen does not.

How often: Lint screen every load, duct and exterior flap every 6 months
How: Unplug the dryer, pull it out, disconnect the duct and vacuum both ends. Outside, check that the flap opens freely and has not been painted shut or blocked by landscaping.
Call a licensed professional when: Drying times keep climbing after a cleaning, the duct is crushed behind the unit, or the run is long with several bends.
Worth documenting: Ducts left crushed or disconnected behind the dryer turn up regularly on new construction. Where the builder installed it, it is a builder item.

The Florida year, month by month.

What we find on these systems

January

Cool, dry

Hold irrigation at once a week, and skip it entirely the week after a rain.
Flush the water heater. Check the pan and the drain line.
Upstairs, check where ceilings meet walls for a gap that opens in cool weather and closes in summer, which is a sign of truss movement. log

February

Pollen season starts

Check the air filter. Oak pollen can load it early.
Book the air conditioning tune-up now, before the May rush.
Rinse screens and window tracks. Pollen clogs weep holes.

March

Termite swarm season

Watch for swarmers or discarded wings near windows and baseboards. log
Watering restrictions relax from one day a week to two when Daylight Saving Time begins. Step irrigation back up as the lawn greens.
Test irrigation zone by zone. Any head hitting the house stains the stucco and drives water into the block, so adjust or replace it.

April

Last of the dry season

Check sealant at every window and door perimeter, and where the hose bibs, dryer vent and air conditioning line set pass through the wall.
On two-story homes, walk the line where the block first floor meets the frame second floor. That seam is where stucco cracks first. Photograph it as your baseline. log
Photograph the exterior on all four sides. log

May

Heat arrives

Flush the condensate line if it has been three months. Summer runtime is when a slow clog becomes a ceiling stain.
Clear gutters and downspouts before the rains.
Hurricane kit inventory: water, batteries, flashlights, and shutters or panels located and labeled.

June

Hurricane season opens, June 1

First heavy rains: walk the slab edge. Water should run away from the house. Anywhere it pools against the foundation gets a photograph. log
White powder on the stucco near the ground, or paint bubbling at the base of interior walls, means moisture is coming through the block. Log it and note where the irrigation hits. log
Trim branches back from the roof and the service drop. Test the garage door manual release.

July

Peak humidity

Set the air conditioning fan to Auto rather than On. Check closets and behind furniture for a musty smell or spotting. log
Look for condensation on supply registers and on the air handler cabinet.
Clean and lubricate sliding door tracks. Test the locks.

August

Daily storms

After heavy rain, check ceilings, window sills and the base of exterior doors for staining. log
Stucco: hairline cracks at the control joints are normal. Cracks between joints, diagonal cracks from window corners, or anything along the block-to-frame seam should be measured and photographed. log
Confirm surge protection on the air conditioning and on major electronics.

September

Peak hurricane month

After any named storm, check the roof from the ground, plus soffits, fascia, fence and screen enclosure. log
Check the dryer vent flapper outside. Wind-driven rain and lint jam it.
Reseat any shutters or panels used, and replace missing hardware.

October

Season winds down

Test heat mode on the heating and cooling system before the first cool night.
Clean the dryer duct behind the machine.
Green film on shaded stucco is algae. Rinse with a garden hose or a low-pressure wash, aimed down, never up into the soffits.
Replace smoke and carbon monoxide detector batteries. Press test on every unit.

November

Hurricane season ends, November 30

Set irrigation to once a week. Central Florida enters its one-day-per-week watering season with the time change and the lawn is going dormant, so check your county's assigned day.
Brown patches now are usually fungus or dormancy rather than thirst. Do not chase them with water.
Recheck window and door sealant after the summer's expansion.

December

Year-end review

Test every ground-fault and arc-fault device. Reset, and note any that will not hold.
Degrease the range hood filter. Clean the refrigerator coils.
Review the photo log. Anything that has grown, spread or stained goes on the list for the warranty inspection. log

Maintenance is not the same as a defect.

Some of what shows up in the first year is neither a chore nor a fault. It is a new building settling into itself. Hairline cracking at drywall seams, nail pops along a ceiling, an interior door that stops latching in August: those are the ordinary movements of a house drying out, and no amount of maintenance prevents them.

The distinction that matters is which conditions to simply watch and which to write down while the warranty year is still open. That is a longer subject than a maintenance task, and it has its own guide.

What is normal settling and what is not

The 11-month warranty deadline and how to use it

Because even a new home deserves a second set of eyes.

Coming up on month eleven?

Maintenance keeps a house running. The 11-month inspection is what catches the things maintenance cannot reach, while the builder warranty is still open. Tell us your closing date and we will tell you when to book.

Book an inspection Call or text

Phone407-863-2663

Emailinfo@thinkhomeiq.com

HoursWeekdays, early evenings and weekends by appointment