Plumbing fails quietly. A valve that has not moved in nine years seizes the one day you need it. A supply hose weeps for months inside a cabinet before anyone notices the swollen particleboard. The repairs that flood kitchens and ruin floors almost always had a cheap early chapter — and the 12 tasks below are how you read it. Spread across the year, nothing here takes longer than half an hour at a stretch.
| When | Task | Time |
|---|---|---|
| January | Exercise every shutoff valve — main, toilets, sinks | 15 min |
| February | Look under every sink and around every toilet base | 15 min |
| March | Test the sump pump; clear the discharge line | 10 min |
| April | Flush the water heater; test the relief valve | 45 min |
| May | Inspect washer and dishwasher supply hoses | 10 min |
| June | Clean faucet aerators and shower heads | 20 min |
| July | Check the water pressure at an outdoor spigot | 5 min |
| August | Run water in rarely used drains; refill traps | 5 min |
| September | Inspect toilet internals; test for silent leaks | 15 min |
| October | Drain and shut off hose bibbs; remove hoses | 15 min |
| November | Locate the main shutoff again; tag it for the household | 5 min |
| Monthly | Glance at the water meter for movement with all taps off | 2 min |
Shutoff valves that sit untouched for years corrode in place. Once a year, turn each fixture valve and the main valve off and back on. A valve that weeps a drop or two while turning usually seals again once it settles; a valve that will not turn at all, or drips steadily afterward, goes on the replacement list while it is still a planned job instead of an emergency one.
Everyone in the house should know where the main shutoff lives and how to close it. Tag it, clear the path to it, and revisit the walkthrough yearly — the full rundown of locations and valve types is in the guide to how to shut off the water to your house. Two minutes of knowing beats twenty minutes of searching with water on the floor.
Twice a year, clear out every sink cabinet and run a dry paper towel along every supply line, trap, and drain joint — dampness you cannot see shows up on the towel. Look for green crust on fittings, rust streaks, swollen cabinet floors, and a musty smell. Check toilet bases too: soft flooring or a rocking toilet points to a failed wax ring, a cheap part guarding an expensive floor.
Sediment is the slow killer of tank water heaters. A yearly drain-and-flush clears the grit that makes tanks rumble, wastes fuel, and eats the lining. The procedure with the right valve sequence is in the guide to how to drain a water heater — it is a garden-hose job, not a plumber job. While you are there, lift the temperature-and-pressure relief valve briefly: water should flow and stop cleanly. A valve that keeps dripping or refuses to open needs replacing, because that valve is the tank's protection against a pressure failure.
Note the tank's age while the flashlight is out — it is printed on the rating label, often coded into the serial number. Tanks typically last 8 to 12 years, so knowing yours is on year 11 turns a future failure into a planned replacement with time to get quotes.
Rubber washer hoses are a top cause of indoor flooding. Inspect them every spring for bulges, cracks, and rusty fittings; replace rubber hoses every 3 to 5 years, or upgrade to braided stainless and stretch the interval. Give dishwasher and ice-maker lines the same look — any line that feels brittle or shows green corrosion is asking to be retired.
Test the sump pump before the spring rains, not during them: pour a bucket of water into the pit and watch the pump kick on, move the water, and shut off. The full routine, including float checks and discharge-line clearing, is in the guide to how to test a sump pump. A pump that hums without moving water or never starts has told you its news at the cheapest possible moment.
In fall, close the interior shutoffs for outdoor faucets, open the outside taps to drain, and take the garden hoses off — a hose left connected traps water in the bibb, which is how those pipes freeze and split. Inside, pour a cup of water into rarely used floor drains every couple of months so the traps do not dry out and let sewer gas in.
Screw the pressure gauge onto an outdoor spigot once a year. Healthy house pressure sits between 40 and 80 psi, ideally 50–60. Pressure creeping past 80 strains every hose, valve, and appliance in the house and points to a failing pressure regulator — a planned repair that protects everything downstream. Pressure far below 40 with clean aerators points the other way, toward a supply or regulator problem worth a call.
For drains, skip the harsh chemicals. Slow drains get a mechanical clearing — a snake or a removed-and-cleaned trap — and grease goes in the trash, not the sink. A drain that slows faster every year is mapping a buildup or root problem, and that pattern is worth a plumber's camera before it becomes a backup.
Insurance industry figures put the average water-damage claim in the thousands, and a burst supply line can release hundreds of gallons an hour. Against that: a $25 pair of braided hoses, a $12 pressure gauge, and about two hours a year of looking at pipes. The checklist does not stop pipes from aging. It moves every discovery earlier — from the day the ceiling stains to the day a towel comes away damp — which is the whole difference between a part and a renovation.
The core annual list: exercise all shutoff valves, flush the water heater and test its relief valve, inspect washer and dishwasher hoses, test the sump pump, check house water pressure, and do a hands-on leak check under every sink. Add fall hose-bibb draining in cold climates and the system is covered.
Once a year for most homes. Houses with hard water or a well that pulls in sediment benefit from twice a year. Regular flushing keeps the tank quiet, holds heating costs down, and helps a tank reach the top of its typical 8-to-12-year life instead of failing early.
Use the meter test: turn everything off and watch the meter for movement, which catches leaks you cannot see. Pair it with the paper-towel check under sinks and around toilet bases twice a year. A water bill that creeps up with no change in use is the third signal — treat it as a leak until proven otherwise.
Between 40 and 80 psi, with 50–60 psi the sweet spot for most homes. A $10–$15 gauge on an outdoor spigot gives the reading in seconds. Sustained pressure above 80 psi calls for a pressure regulator check; it shortens the life of hoses, valves, and appliances all over the house.
Call for anything involving gas lines to a water heater, a main line or sewer backup, a valve that will not close during an active leak, or corrosion and repeat leaks on the same joint. Routine checks, flushes, hose swaps, and aerator cleaning are standard homeowner work; the items above are where a small problem turns expensive fast.