Maintenance is such an important part of running a successful sober living home - but it can also be the last item on your to-do list. Ignore maintenance tasks at your own risks!

If you’re a sober living home manager (or owner) ask yourself:

When was the last time you changed the air filter on your HVAC?
How many downspouts are there on the property? Are they in working order?
How’s the bathtub looking these days?
Do your smoke detectors work? Are you sure?

Staying on top of maintenance at your sober living home can feel next to impossible, especially when you are operating multiple properties at once. If you can’t answer these questions, you’re not alone. Routine maintenance tasks can sneak up on you and before you know it, you’re months behind in your honey-do list.

Today, we’ll look at the top 5 sober living home maintenance tasks that most sober living home operators are letting slip through the cracks - only to pay for the deferred maintenance later.

Sober Living Home Maintenance Task #1: Smoke Detector Check

When was the last time you checked the smoke alarms at your sober living home? This is a frequently ignored maintenance task that’s actually illegal to ignore.

Smoke detectors usually work - until they don’t. Next time you’re at your sober living home property, check to make sure that all of the smoke detectors have good batteries and are in working order. While you’re at it, make sure that the carbon monoxide detectors are working, too. (You have those, right?)

Besides ensuring resident safety, maintaining working smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms is the law in most states. Making sure that they work is cheap insurance.

Sober Living Home Maintenance Task #2: Re-Caulking the Bathroom

Got water damage? Check to be sure that the caulking in the bathroom of your sober living home is in tip to condition next time you are doing a maintenance round.

Water damage is a huge issue in any property, but especially in sober living homes, where residents may not treat the bathrooms as carefully as they should. Water damage is expensive to fix and often requires a complete gut of the bathroom to take care of properly. It’s a headache that’s best avoided.

The shower and/or bathtub are far and away the top culprits for water damage. Check to make sure that the caulk around the bathing area is intact, with no peeling, pitting or missing pieces. Be sure, too, that any tiles are sound and that grout is hard, not crumbly.

Sober Living Home Maintenance Task #3: HVAC Attention

Your sober living home residents aren’t going to be very happy if the HVAC gives out on a hot summer day or in the middle of a harsh winter. Perform maintenance on your sober living home’s HVAC unit before it becomes an emergency.

HVAC systems need regular maintenance, too. Change the air filter on the furnace every 6 months.

Have an HVAC tech visit your sober living to perform routine maintenance on the system to keep it running smoothly on an off-season (like Spring or early Fall) when demand for HVAC repairs are low.

Sober Living Home Maintenance Task #4: Drainage Day

Keeping the gutters clean on the exterior of your sober living home is especially important in climates where heavy rain or snow are commonplace.

Here comes that water damage worry again! This time we’re looking at the exterior of the sober living home. Drainage issues can be an absolute nightmare if not addressed early.

Do an exterior lap around your sober living home and inspect all of the downspouts. Are they water tight? Securely attached? Pointing away from the foundation? Discharging at least 3 feet away from the building? Do you see any pooling or indentations in the ground where water has been collecting against the foundation?

Don’t forget to clean the gutters at least once a year, too. If it’s been a while, take care of that, too.

While you’re at, check to make sure that the ground around your sober living home is sloping away from the foundation. If it’s not, correct the grade right away.

Sober Living Home Maintenance Task #5: Flush the Water Heater

Have you ever flushed the water heater at your sober living home? This maintenance task is probably the number one most overlooked item on our list.

When was the last time you flushed the water heater at your sober living home?

If you said, “probably never,” you’re in good company.

Still, flushing the water heater is an easy way to extend the life of the unit. Flushing the sediment can also help keep your utility bills in check, as removing the muck from the bottom of the heater boosts overall water heater efficiency.

Need Help Organizing Routine Maintenance at Your Sober Living Home?

Running a profitable sober living home business means staying responsive to your properties and the people living in them. While most sober living home operators don’t intend to neglect their properties, the truth is that the sheer number of details involved with running a sober living home can feel overwhelming, even to the most fastidious owner.

At Sober Living App, we’ve designed a software solution for sober living home management overwhelm. Specifically created to “hack” your sober living home’s most tedious tasks - from HVAC filter changes to bed management to new resident paperwork - Sober Living App saves you time, money and sanity.

We’ve actually created a new feature specifically for this purpose called To-Do 2.0. This feature allows you to schedule recurring to-do items that can be shared with anyone in your system. Assign the tasks to residents, staff, or both.

Never forget to clean the gutters again!

Best of all? It’s free to try, with no strings attached or plans to cancel. Claim your free trial today and see why more sober living homes prefer the Sober Living App.