The same handful of maintenance items show up on inspection report after inspection report: a range with no anti-tip bracket, a dishwasher drain hose with no high loop, a garage door that won’t reverse, and grading that sends water toward the foundation. This Colorado home maintenance checklist covers the nine I see most.
When people think of home inspections, they usually think about buying or selling a house. But after reviewing hundreds of inspection reports over the years, I’ve noticed something interesting. The same handful of maintenance items show up again and again.
Article Summary
- Nine items account for most of the small stuff on a home inspection report.
- Everything on this Colorado home maintenance checklist is homeowner-level work. Most items take an hour or less and cost little or nothing.
- Water is the expensive problem. Grading and gutters come first.
- Clearing the list before you sell heads off most inspection objections before a buyer writes one.
Why These Items Matter Even If You’re Not Moving
If you’re planning to sell in the next few years, staying on top of these items can help your home show better and avoid unnecessary inspection objections. Even if you’re not moving anytime soon, taking care of them now can prevent more expensive repairs later.
And if you bought your home a few years ago and never quite finished everything on your own inspection report, consider this your reminder.
A buyer reading a long repair list doesn’t sort the small stuff from the serious stuff. They see a long list and start wondering what else got overlooked. That’s the real cost of leaving these undone.
The 9 Items I See Over and Over
1. Install the Anti-Tip Bracket on Your Range
This is probably the most common safety item on inspection reports. Freestanding ranges can tip forward if too much weight is placed on an open oven door, and that’s especially dangerous for children.
- Time: about five minutes
- Tools: a screwdriver or drill
- Where the hardware is: still in the box or taped inside the storage drawer, most of the time
- Why inspectors flag it: tip-over risk. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has pushed on this hazard for years.
Most newer ranges come with an anti-tip bracket, but they’re surprisingly often never installed after delivery. It’s a five-minute project that can prevent a serious accident.
2. Check the Dishwasher Drain Hose
The drain hose from your dishwasher should loop up as high as possible before connecting to the garbage disposal or sink drain. This is called a high loop.
- Time: about ten minutes
- Tools: a zip tie or hose clamp
- Where to look: open the cabinet under the kitchen sink and follow the corrugated hose
- Worth knowing: some Front Range jurisdictions want a high loop, others want an air gap fitting on the counter. Your local building department can tell you which applies.
Without it, dirty water from the sink can flow back into your dishwasher, creating sanitation issues and sometimes unpleasant odors. This is one of the easiest inspection items to correct.
3. Test Your Garage Door Safety Features
Your garage door should reverse immediately if it contacts an object while closing. Place a piece of wood, such as a 2×4 laid flat, on the ground beneath the door. When the door touches it, it should automatically reverse.
- Time: about ten minutes for both checks
- What you need: a 2×4 and a rag
- Second check: the photo-eye lights near the floor should be steady, not blinking
- Never test with a hand, a foot, a pet, or a kid
Also wipe off the photo-eye sensors near the floor and make sure they’re aligned. Garage doors are incredibly heavy, and these safety features are there for a reason.
4. Check the Grading Around Your Home
Water is one of the biggest enemies of a house. Walk around your home’s foundation after a heavy rain. Water should always drain away from the foundation, not toward it.
While you’re outside:
- Make sure your air conditioning condenser is sitting level.
- Look for soil that has settled against the foundation.
- Fill any low spots where water tends to collect.
- Check that downspouts discharge several feet away from the house.
Good drainage helps protect your foundation, basement, and crawlspace from moisture problems. Much of the Front Range sits on expansive clay soil, so standing water against a foundation is the item on this list I’d deal with first.
5. Refresh Caulk and Repair Cracked Grout
Bathrooms take a beating. Inspect the corners of showers, tubs, backsplashes, and sinks, and if caulk is cracked, peeling, or missing, replace it before water works its way behind the tile.
- Time: about an hour per bathroom
- Tools: utility knife, caulk gun, kitchen and bath silicone, grout repair kit
- Check: tub-to-tile joints, shower corners, the seam behind the kitchen faucet, and around the toilet base
Likewise, cracked or missing grout should be repaired promptly to help keep moisture out of the wall assembly. A tube of caulk costs just a few dollars. Repairing water damage can cost thousands.
6. Show Your Windows Some Love
Windows are one of the most neglected parts of a home, and they turn up on inspection reports constantly. A pass through the whole house takes about an hour.
Take a few minutes to:
- Clean the window tracks.
- Vacuum debris from the weep holes.
- Check that locks operate properly.
- Replace torn screens.
- Inspect exterior caulking.
- Lubricate moving parts if needed.
Properly maintained windows last longer, operate more smoothly, and help keep conditioned air inside your home.
7. Replace Furnace Filters
Even though it’s still summer, this is a great time to replace your furnace filter before heating season begins. A clean filter helps your HVAC system run more efficiently, improves indoor air quality, and can extend the life of your equipment.
- Time: about five minutes
- How often: every one to three months for a standard one-inch filter
- Write the date on the cardboard edge so the next swap isn’t a guess
If you read my article about Colorado’s furnace regulations, you already know that keeping your existing system running well is becoming more important than ever.
8. Inspect Exterior Sealants
Small gaps in exterior caulk let water and insects inside and can increase heating and cooling costs. Replacing failed sealant is one of the highest-value maintenance projects you can do.
Walk around the outside of your home and inspect the caulking around:
- Windows
- Doors
- Utility penetrations
- Hose bibs
- Exterior light fixtures
Use an exterior-grade sealant rated for our temperature swings, not interior painter’s caulk, and do it on a dry day.
9. Clean Gutters Before Fall
You don’t have to wait until the leaves start falling. Summer storms can fill gutters with pine needles, seed pods, and debris.
- Time: an afternoon
- Check: hangers tight, seams not dripping, downspouts carrying water well away from the foundation
- Skip the ladder if the roof is steep or two stories up. This is the one worth hiring out.
Make sure gutters are secure, flowing properly, and that downspouts carry water well away from your home’s foundation.
How to Work This Colorado Home Maintenance Checklist Without Losing a Weekend
Split it into three short sessions instead of one long Saturday: a half hour indoors, an afternoon outside, and a quick pass before the first hard freeze.
- Indoors, half an hour: anti-tip bracket, dishwasher high loop, furnace filter, window locks
- Outside, an afternoon: grading, downspout extensions, exterior sealant, garage door test
- Before the freeze, late September: gutters, caulk and grout, window tracks and weep holes
If Selling Is on Your Horizon
By tackling a few of these projects each season, you’ll protect your investment, reduce the chances of inspection issues when it’s time to sell, and keep your home in great condition.
If a sale is somewhere on your horizon, it’s worth knowing what your home is worth today, and my seller’s guide walks through how the rest of the timeline fits together. On the buying side, my buyer’s guide covers how to read an inspection report without panicking, and you can browse current Littleton homes for sale whenever you’re ready to look.
Home inspections don’t usually uncover major surprises. More often than not, they identify dozens of small maintenance items that have been overlooked over the years.
Frequently Asked Questions
A missing anti-tip bracket on the range, a dishwasher drain hose with no high loop, a garage door that won’t auto-reverse, grading that slopes toward the foundation, cracked caulk and grout, neglected windows, a dirty furnace filter, failed exterior sealant, and clogged gutters. None of them are dramatic. All of them are avoidable.
No, but the small safety items are the cheapest ones to clear and the easiest for a buyer to object to. Start with the anti-tip bracket, the dishwasher high loop, and the garage door test, then work outward to drainage.
Ranges ship with one and inspectors write it up when it is missing, because a freestanding range can tip forward if too much weight lands on an open oven door. Installing it takes about five minutes.
Late summer. It’s dry enough for exterior sealant, you can still see where storm water goes around the foundation, and the furnace filter gets changed before heating season instead of during it.
Yes. Every item an inspector can’t write up is one nobody asks for a credit on, and a short, clean inspection report tells a buyer the house has been looked after.
If you’d like a fresh set of eyes on your home before you put it on the market, or even if you just have questions about a repair you’re considering, I’d be happy to help. Call me at 303-210-6156 or reach out through karinjacoby.com.
— Karin Jacoby, Dream Realty