04·MAINT
Maintenance Calendar
One merged calendar — monthly, quarterly, seasonal, annual — each task linking back to its system page.
956 N Noble Loop · Showing Edition · Rev A · Aug 2026
Everything this house needs done, on the interval it needs doing, with the authority for each cadence in the right-hand column so you can check any of it yourself. Work down the season you are in; each task links to the page that explains the equipment behind it.
Some schedules scale with use — check the system’s own page
A calendar assumes every task comes round on the clock. Two systems in this house genuinely don’t work that way, because what wears them is consumption, not time: the water treatment system (salt is used per regeneration, and regenerations are triggered by gallons) and the steam shower generator (scale is made by boiling water, so an unused generator makes none). Both are also deliberately oversized for this house, which stretches their intervals further and makes it easy to forget they exist. Each of those pages therefore carries a usage-scaled table — by household size for the softener, by how often you steam for the generator — and those tables, not the rows below, are the real schedule. Re-read them whenever the household changes: a house that goes from two occupants to five, or that starts entertaining heavily, has genuinely moved to a different maintenance cadence.
What the HOA does, so you don’t
The HOA’s landscaping company maintains the entire front area — the grass and the plantings — and winterizes the irrigation for the whole HOA every fall, blowing out the lines and shutting the water off. That annual job is not on your list and is not on this calendar. What is yours: the back yard irrigation, and repairs to broken equipment anywhere on the system. The full winterization procedure is documented on the Irrigation page for reference and for the day something needs fixing out of season.
Monthly
| Task | System | Why | Source of cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Test every smoke & CO alarm (press the test button) | The House | Confirms the sensor, horn, and battery are all actually working — the single highest-value five minutes on this list. | NFPA — maintaining smoke alarms ↗ |
| Check the water softener’s salt level — but on the interval in the usage table, not this one | Plumbing & hot water — usage-scaled salt/hardness/service table | A softener that runs out of salt stops treating water — hard water then reaches every fixture and the tankless heater. Salt is consumed per regeneration and the softener’s Clack WS1 valve is metered (it regenerates on gallons used, not on a timer), so the right checking interval depends on the household: the Plumbing page carries a table running from a 2–3 person household (look every ~2 months) to heavy entertaining (look monthly). Monthly is the safe default if you don’t want to think about it. confirm whether the pool salt stacked near the brine tank is the intended salt type | Clack Corporation — WS1 control valve overview ↗ + the usage table on the Plumbing page |
| Clean the range hood’s metal grease filters | Kitchen | Grease buildup cuts suction and is a real fire risk — more so on the 1200 CFM Zephyr Siena Pro, which moves a lot of cooking exhaust. | General range-hood filter guidance ↗ |
| Check the HVAC filter; replace every 6 months | HVAC | The number one driver of HVAC strain, higher bills, and shortened equipment life. This furnace takes a 20¾" × 27¾", MERV 8 media filter on a 6-month change interval — a media filter, not a monthly 1" throwaway. | ENERGY STAR — heating & cooling maintenance checklist ↗ + the furnace’s HeatGuy LLC service sticker |
| Glance at the Tesla app — solar production & Powerwall reserve | Energy — solar & Powerwall | Catches a shading, inverter, or production problem — or an unexpectedly low backup reserve — early, instead of finding out during an outage. | Tesla — how Powerwall works ↗ |
Quarterly
| Task | System | Why | Source of cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Run each back-yard irrigation zone briefly; look for broken or clogged heads | Irrigation — Rachio | Catches a damaged head, emitter, or valve before it becomes a dry patch of lawn or a flooded bed. The front is the HOA landscaper’s ground; the back yard is yours, and broken equipment anywhere on the system is the homeowner’s repair. | Rachio support — general operation ↗ |
| Test GFCI outlets (kitchen, baths, garage, exterior) — press “test,” confirm it trips, then “reset” | The House | A GFCI that has silently failed stops protecting against shock without any visible sign. outlet count/locations to confirm at walkthrough | CPSC — general GFCI safety guidance ↗ |
| Wipe down / vacuum dust in the network closet; confirm airflow isn’t blocked | Network | The PoE switch runs warm by design; blocked airflow around it shortens the life of everything in the closet. | Full procedure on the Network page. |
| Quick tap-water hardness test | Plumbing & hot water | Confirms the softener is actually softening the water, not just cycling. Interval scales with use — the Plumbing page’s usage table runs from every 6 months (2–3 people) to every 2–3 months (full house); quarterly is the middle of that range. confirm this softener’s test-strip/recommended interval | Water-treatment industry maintenance guidance ↗ |
Spring (March–May)
| Task | System | Why | Source of cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gutter clearing (1 of 2 for the year) | The House | PNW gutters fill with debris nearly year-round; clearing before the wettest months return prevents overflow and water intrusion. | PNW gutter-service guidance — twice-yearly baseline ↗ |
| Irrigation spring startup: once the water is back on, run every back-yard zone and check for winter damage | Irrigation — Rachio | The HOA’s landscaping company shuts the water off in the fall and turns it back on in the spring. Your job is the walk-round afterwards: run each back-yard zone and the drip lines and look for anything that cracked or seized over the winter, before the watering season needs it. | Rachio — winter prep & spring startup guide ↗ |
| Pre-season air conditioner check | HVAC | ENERGY STAR recommends checking the cooling system in spring, ahead of the first hot stretch, rather than waiting for it to fail on the first 90° day. | ENERGY STAR — heating & cooling maintenance checklist ↗ |
| Check exterior hose bibs for winter freeze damage before heavy use | Plumbing & hot water | A cracked bib often doesn’t show until it’s turned back on for the season — better to find it deliberately than by flooding. | General seasonal-plumbing guidance. |
| Steam generator: confirm the flush is still cycling; descale only on symptoms | Steam shower generator | The Mr. Steam MS400EC1’s flush system is set up and working, and it is fed softened water, so the every-couple-of-months hand-drain routine does not apply here. Twice a year, glance at the drain outlet and the tray. Descale on symptoms — weak steam, a long time to first steam — rather than on a date; the Steam Generator page carries the usage-scaled table. | Mr. Steam — generator maintenance guidance ↗ |
Fall (September–November)
| Task | System | Why | Source of cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gutter clearing (2 of 2 for the year) | The House | Clears the year’s second flush of debris ahead of the heaviest PNW rain — the single most common cause of preventable water intrusion. | PNW gutter-service guidance — twice-yearly baseline ↗ |
| Irrigation winterization — done for you by the HOA | Irrigation — Rachio | The HOA’s landscaping company blows out the lines and shuts the water off for the whole HOA every fall, which is what protects the system and the backflow assembly from freeze damage. Nothing to do — just know it happens, and know that the procedure is written up on the Irrigation page for the day you need it out of season. | Rachio — winter prep & spring startup guide ↗ |
| Pre-season furnace check | HVAC | ENERGY STAR recommends checking the heating system in fall, before it’s asked to run every day. | ENERGY STAR — heating & cooling maintenance checklist ↗ |
| Clean the dryer vent | Laundry | Lint buildup in the vent (not just the lint trap) is a leading cause of home clothes-dryer fires. | CPSC — clothes dryer fire safety ↗ |
| Winterize exterior hose bibs | Plumbing & hot water | Prevents a frozen, split pipe from a hard freeze over winter. | General seasonal-plumbing guidance. |
Annual
| Task | System | Why | Source of cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Descale/flush the Rinnai RUC80i tankless water heater | Plumbing & hot water | Prevents scale buildup that reduces efficiency, shortens the unit’s life, and can void the warranty if skipped. The unit already has its Rinnai isolation/flush valve kit fitted, so this is done without cutting pipe. | Rinnai — RUC80i installation & operation manual ↗ |
| Test the irrigation backflow-prevention assembly | Irrigation — Rachio | Required annually for any Ridgefield property with in-ground irrigation, to stop lawn/garden water from ever siphoning back into the drinking-water supply. | City of Ridgefield — Backflow & Cross-Connection (WAC 246-290-490) ↗ |
| Clean/replace the projector air filter; check lamp hours | Media room | A clogged filter causes overheating and shortens an already wear-item lamp’s life; catching low hours early avoids a movie night interrupted by a dead bulb. | Epson — 5040UB user’s guide ↗ — full procedure on the Media room page |
| Water softener professional service / resin check | Plumbing & hot water | Industry guidance calls for a professional check on the resin bed and valve every 12–18 months even when salt is kept topped up — the Plumbing page’s usage table puts a lightly-used household at the 12–18-month end and a full house at annually. | Water-treatment industry maintenance guidance ↗ softener brand/dealer still to gather |
| Replace smoke & CO alarm batteries (non-sealed units) | The House | NFPA guidance: even with monthly testing, batteries should be swapped at least once a year. | NFPA — maintaining smoke alarms ↗ |
| Full roof & gutter inspection (beyond routine clearing) | The House | Catches missing/lifted shingles, flashing issues, and PNW moss growth before they become an active leak. | General home-inspection guidance; see also the Replacement-horizon forecast on the Reference page. |
| Garage door opener safety-reversal test + lubrication | Garage | The auto-reverse safety feature is the single most safety-critical check on a garage door; lubrication extends the opener and spring’s working life. | General garage-door-opener manufacturer guidance confirm opener make/model |
| Kegerator CO2 tank inspection & line cleaning | Bar & butler’s pantry | Beer-line buildup affects taste and tap performance even when the tank itself is fine — three taps means three lines. | General draft-beer-system guidance exact kegerator model to gather |
The maintenance log — not just a schedule
A schedule tells you what should happen. A log tells you what actually did — the same pattern a yacht or an aircraft uses for its maintenance record. This log starts at the 2017 build and is meant to be continued, not archived: the printed binder carries blank, lined pages after it so each entry gets added by hand as the work is done.
| Year | Event | Details | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | House built (custom construction completed) | Whole-home systems commissioned together: solar array, 2 Powerwalls, tankless water heater, water treatment, network/UniFi, HVAC. | exact completion date to gather |
| 2017 | Rinnai RUC80i tankless water heater installed | Wall-hung in the garage back bay with a Rinnai isolation/flush valve kit — see the Plumbing page. | serial to gather |
| 2017 | Water treatment train installed | Metered softener, a second treatment tank, and the shared brine tank, all on Clack WS1 control valves. | serials to gather |
| 2017 | Tesla solar array (36 panels) + 2 Powerwalls commissioned | Two wall-mounted string inverters, a Tesla gateway, and a separate solar generation meter on the exterior equipment wall. | inverter/gateway model, production history to gather |
| 2017 | Network/UniFi system installed | Fiber to the home, 100% PoE — see the Network page for the full topology. | Documented — see network.html |
| — | Ecobee thermostat upgraded to a newer model | The only appliance or device in the house that has been replaced since the build. Nothing else has failed or been serviced. | date of the swap to gather |
To complete the log
Still to add: HVAC service dates and who performed them, backflow test dates and results, roof/gutter service dates, the projector’s lamp-replacement date and hour count at swap, water-heater descale dates, and softener resin/media service dates. Service invoices and dated photos are the fastest way to fill these in.
In the printed binder, this table is followed by several blank lined “continuation” pages. A house this well documented stays that way only if the record keeps being written; a dated line and a name is enough.