A first-year maintenance calendar for a Sioux Falls house

If you have just bought here, the climate will set your maintenance schedule whether you plan for it or not. Hard freezes, a compressed building season, spring hail, and a wind that finds every gap in an exterior.

This is a seasonal checklist with real local businesses named from our listings as examples of who works in each category. Nothing here is a recommendation. We have not hired these companies and we hold no reviews or ratings.

Late summer and early autumn: the furnace

Do this in September, not November. Every heating contractor in the city is buried once the first cold night arrives, and a furnace that fails in January is an emergency call at emergency rates.

Ask for a combustion check and a look at the heat exchanger, not just a filter swap. On anything over fifteen years old, ask directly how much life is left so a replacement is a decision rather than a crisis.

Autumn: water, gutters and the exterior

Disconnect and drain hose bibs before the first hard freeze. A frozen sill cock that splits inside the wall does not reveal itself until spring, at which point it has been leaking behind drywall.

Clear the gutters after the leaves are down. Ice dams form when meltwater has nowhere to go, and the resulting water gets into the roof deck and the wall cavity.

Winter: snow, ice and the driveway

Arrange snow service before the season, not after a storm. Contractors fill their route lists early and a mid-winter caller is competing with everybody else in the same position.

Ask what snow depth triggers a visit, whether the contract is per push or seasonal, and whether they do walks and steps or only the driveway.

Late winter: watch for ice dams

If you see thick ice at the eaves or icicles across the whole gutter line, that is heat escaping into the attic and melting snow from underneath. It is an insulation and ventilation problem showing up as a roof symptom.

Chipping at it damages shingles. Getting the attic looked at solves it properly.

Spring: inspect for hail and wind damage

After the first serious storm season, look at the roof, the north and west siding, window screens, and any exterior paint. Hail damage to asphalt shingles is often not visible from the ground.

Be deliberate about who you let up there. Storm-chasing crews arrive quickly after a hail event, and the filter is a permanent local address and a South Dakota filing that predates the storm.

Spring: the basement and the grade

Our freeze and thaw cycle works on foundations, and snowmelt is when water intrusion announces itself. Check the perimeter for soil that has settled and now slopes toward the house.

Confirm downspouts discharge well away from the foundation. That single item resolves a large share of wet basements without anybody pouring anything.

Late spring: irrigation, lawn and trees

Get sprinklers started and checked once frost risk has passed, and get trees looked at before leaf-out when structure is still visible.

Deadwood over a roof or a driveway is the item worth acting on rather than deferring. Wind here removes weak limbs on its own schedule.

Summer: the exterior work window

Paint, siding, concrete and roofing all need weather, and the window here is short. Good crews book it early, which means quotes gathered in spring get better scheduling than quotes gathered in July.

Any time: the things that do not wait

Water leaks, no heat in winter, electrical smells or warm outlets, and gas odors are not calendar items.

Save a plumber and an electrician's number before you need either. The worst time to start researching a contractor is standing in an inch of water at midnight.

How to use the names above

Every business named here is a real row in our listings, drawn from public business records. We publish name, address, phone and category, and nothing else. We do not carry reviews or ratings and we have no first-hand knowledge of anybody's work.

They are a starting point for a shortlist. Verify the entity with the state, get the insurance certificate from the agent, and put the scope in writing.