Gulf Coast Home Maintenance Free calendars

The Gulf Coast Home Maintenance Calendar

Your house is on a different schedule than the internet thinks.

Most maintenance advice is written for a climate you don't live in. Down here the A/C runs nine months a year, termites swarm every spring, and hurricane season has a deadline your insurance actually enforces. This calendar is built for that.

Get the free phone calendars See the full edition
9months a year your A/C is running
183days of hurricane season, June 1 to Nov 30
30day wait before a flood policy takes effect
36tasks across twelve months, in three tiers
01 — The pressures

The Gulf Coast year

Four overlapping seasons your house has to survive, and they don't line up with the ones on a normal calendar. This is the shape the twelve months are built around.

JANFEB MARAPR MAYJUN JULAUG SEPOCT NOVDEC HURRICANE HEAT & HUMIDITY TERMITE SWARM FREEZE RISK ◂ INSURE BEFORE MAY 1
The 30-day wait on a flood policy is why May, not June, is the real hurricane deadline. Miss it and you are uninsured for the opening weeks of the season.
02 — Why it's different here

Four things that break the national averages

Those averages assume mild summers, dry air, and a roof that isn't being sandblasted with salt.

Salt air

Corrodes condenser coils, fasteners, and flashing years ahead of schedule.

Humidity

Drives mold, rot, and pests into crawlspaces and wall cavities you never look at.

Termites

Formosan and native subterranean colonies are endemic — and the damage is almost never covered by insurance.

Hurricane season

June 1 to November 30, with an insurance waiting period that makes May the real deadline.

03 — How it works

Twelve months, three tiers

The tiers exist so you can start without drowning. Nobody does all of this the first year.

Must Do 12 a year

Safety, or skipping it costs you thousands. If you do nothing else, do these twelve things.

Should Do 12 a year

Protects your home's value and makes what you own last longer.

Going Above 12 a year

For the homeowner who wants to stay ahead of everything.

What a month looks like

May

Hurricane prep month · season opens June 1

Must
Verify your insurance before the season starts: wind, and flood if you carry it. Flood policies generally take 30 days to take effect. Photograph every room and the exterior for your claim file. Trim limbs back from the roof.
Should
Test the generator. Restock supplies. Check that shutters or plywood are on hand and fit.
Above
Inspect soffit vents and roof edges. Secure sheds, fencing, and anything that becomes a projectile.
04 — The back page

The Big Ticket Watch List

Every expensive thing in your house is already on a clock. You write in the year it was installed; the list tells you when to start saving instead of when to start panicking.

Exterior caulk 2–4 yr
Exterior paint 5–7 yr
Water heater — tank 8–10 yr
A/C condenser 10–12 yr
Roof — asphalt shingle 12–15 yr
Furnace / air handler 15–18 yr
Windows 15–25 yr
Roof — metal 30–40 yr
010203040 YEARS

Your caulk fails seven times before your roof does — which is exactly why it's the thing nobody budgets for. These numbers run shorter than the national ones on purpose: salt, humidity, and UV wear coastal homes faster than those averages assume. The full edition carries the whole list, plus a page on how to date everything in your house when the previous owner left you nothing.

The complete edition

Undated, so it never expires and never goes on sale in January — twelve months, all three tiers, the full Big Ticket Watch List, the page on how to date everything you own, and a first-month checklist for what you only do once.

05 — Free

Put it on your phone

The same twelve months, as three calendars you can subscribe to. Free, no signup, and they repeat every year forever.

Must Do 12 reminders a year

Should Do 12 reminders a year

Going Above 12 reminders a year

06 — Getting them on your phone

However you keep your calendar

Start with Must Do

Add the others when you're ready. The whole point of the tiers is that you don't have to do everything at once.

Subscribe rather than download

A subscription keeps updating as the calendar improves, including the how-to videos being added to each task. A downloaded file is a snapshot — it never changes, and it duplicates itself if you import it twice.

Google Calendar, including Android

Android uses Google Calendar, so this is the button for it too. The app itself can't add a subscription — do it once from a browser and it appears on every device on that account.

  1. Tap Add to Google Calendar.
  2. Confirm Add when Google asks.
  3. In the app, open the menu and switch it on.

Google refreshes slowly, sometimes up to a day. A new calendar may show its web address as the name until then — that's normal.

If the Google Calendar app opens and nothing happens — most likely on Android — it intercepted the link, and the app can't subscribe. Use Copy feed URL instead, then add it from a browser with Other calendars → + → From URL. On a phone, turn on your browser's desktop-site setting first.

Apple Calendar or Outlook

Use Subscribe, which hands off to your default calendar app.

Any other app

Outlook on the web, Thunderbird and Proton want a pasted address. Use Copy feed URL, then find Subscribe from web, Add from URL, or New calendar from internet.

Reminders are yours to set

These arrive as all-day events with no alert, so they never wake you up. Add one notification on the calendar itself and it applies to all twelve months.

Not sure how to do one?

The how-to guides pair each task with a video from someone who explains it well. Calendar events link straight to the task they mention.