The Greenville Home Maintenance Checklist for Every Season

Why Upstate homes need their own checklist

Greenville homes deal with a specific mix of conditions: heavy clay soil that shifts and stresses buried lines, long humid cooling seasons that run air conditioners hard, and older neighborhoods where sewer laterals and electrical panels predate current codes.

A seasonal walkthrough takes an hour or two a year. Nearly every emergency call we run started as something visible months earlier.

Spring

Spring is the time to get ahead of the cooling season and to look for anything winter moved or cracked.

• Change HVAC filters and clear leaves and debris from around the outdoor condenser.
• Run every seldom-used fixture — guest bath, outdoor spigots — and watch for slow drains.
• Walk the yard after heavy rain and note any soggy strips or unusually green patches, which can signal a leaking water or sewer line.
• Test GFCI outlets in kitchens, baths, garages and exterior walls with the test and reset buttons.

Summer

Summer is peak load for both the electrical panel and the air system. Watch how the house behaves under that load.

• Check that the AC condensate line is draining freely and not backing into the pan.
• Note whether breakers trip when the AC starts alongside other large appliances.
• Test water pressure with two showers running — a weak stream on one is a classic failed pressure reducing valve.

Fall and winter

Fall is when heating gets its first real test and when tree roots have finished a season of growing into sewer laterals.

• Run the heat before the first cold night so a failure happens on a scheduled visit, not at 11 p.m.
• Insulate exposed pipes in crawl spaces and along exterior walls.
• Clear gutters and confirm downspouts carry water away from the foundation and the sewer cleanout.
• Locate your main water shutoff and make sure everyone in the house knows where it is.

When to call

Anything involving buried lines, panel work, gas or repeated backups is worth a licensed set of eyes. Call (864) 478-4421 and describe what you are seeing — we will tell you straight whether it needs a truck.