In part 2 of our series on familiarizing yourself with your home, we turn to the interior.
This is aimed at owners of new (or new to them) homes, but it’s equally valuable if you don’t know that much about your interior. The walls of your home hide valuable infrastructure that pumps water, gas and electricity to everywhere you need, and you want your systems to stay in tip-top shape.
Perform a deep clean and inspection
Your first priority is to establish a clean slate to work with. Clean every nook and cranny of your home, creating a project list and damage report as you go. Check your home inspection report, if you had one during the buying process, and assess what you need to work on first.
Check your HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning)
You want to know what kind of system you have. Gas, electric, forced air, heat pumps—all these components bring different challenges and maintenance tasks.
Hire an HVAC pro to perform a cleaning and tune up of your system. This usually costs about $100. It’s a good idea to have your system inspected twice a year, before turning on heat and air conditioning for the first time that year, and you definitely want to check it out before you’re in the home very long.
Check your ventilation system and hire an air duct cleaning professional if necessary. This may not be very likely, but it’s still possible, so ask your HVAC pro how the ducts look to them.
If your home has a gas line, learn how to shut if off in an emergency. An HVAC or plumbing pro can help show you. In most cases, a valve on your gas meter can be shut in order to close off gas access in an emergency.
Consider getting an HVAC service contract. This often includes all the regular maintenance and inspections, and usually gives you privileged scheduling priority and discounts on repairs or emergencies.
Learn about your plumbing and water
Determine what kind of system you have. In most cases you’ll be on a municipal water line, but some homes use a well or cistern instead. and if you have a septic tank, it carries its own list of needs.
Find out how to shut off water in your home. Most fixtures will have individual valves to shut down that particular fixture. But if you’ve got an emergency, or you don’t have time to figure out where a rushing water leak is coming from, you might need to shut off the main water valve until the problem can be addressed. The valve is often either in the basement, connected to the water meter, or outdoors. Ask your plumber to help you identify it; this isn’t a valve you want to be figuring out for the first time in an emergency.
Find out if you have a water softener, or if you need one. Consider hiring a plumber to perform an inspection of your system and various fixtures.
Determine what kind of water heater you have. The variety of choices such as gas or electric and tank or tankless will impact your maintenance choices. A water heating tank needs to be flushed every so often to clear out sediment and internal debris. If you don’t know the last time it was flushed, hire someone to do that soon.
If you have a septic system, hire a pro to inspect it specifically. Don’t take the prior homeowner’s word that it’s been cleaned and is in good shape; you want to verify for yourself.
Check the electrical
Find out where your panel is at and familiarize yourself with the basics, including whether it’s a circuit breaker, older fuse-based system, or something else. (Nearly every home is going to have a circuit breaker panel these days, but you still want to verify the basics.) Learn how to switch off individual breakers and, if necessary, the entire home’s power supply in an emergency .
Hire an electrician to perform an electrical inspection, to find out any hidden dangers in your home and any wear and tear that needs to be replaced or repaired. Ask them to verify that the various circuits are correctly labeled.