The House Year

Kane County, Illinois

April in Kane County

11 tasks for a typical local house (basement, gas furnace) ·adjust for yours

  1. Test the water heater's relief valve

    On top or high on the side of your tank is a brass valve with a flip lever — the temperature-pressure relief (TPR) valve.

    $160–$290to hire out here

  2. Clean the basement window wells

    Your basement's most honest vulnerability isn't the walls — it's the handful of spots where a hole was cut below grade on purpose.

    $105–$265to hire out here

  3. Clear window weep holes and wash the screens

    Look at the bottom outside edge of any vinyl or aluminum window and you'll find two or three little slots.

    $160–$370to hire out here

  4. Walk the perimeter — grading and drainage check

    Your foundation has one enemy with a thousand disguises, and it's water sitting where it shouldn't.

    $315–$1,575to hire out here

  5. Hot tub quarterly care

    First, the honest gate: no hot tub, no task — skip this card and enjoy your quarter.

    $160–$370to hire out here

  6. Spring cooling-system checkup

    Even in your climate, cooling failures are the expensive kind: they cluster in heat waves, when service calls are premium-priced and parts are backordered.

    $95–$190to hire out here

  7. Walk the perimeter like a mouse

    Pest control that works is mostly carpentry: animals and insects get in through openings, and the openings are findable.

    $130–$370to hire out here

  8. First-hookup check on outdoor faucets

    Here's the cruel trick of a winter-burst outdoor faucet: the split happens in January, inside the wall, upstream of the shutoff — and then nothing leaks.

    Scheduled ahead of Kane County's average first frost (10/18).

    $185–$420to hire out here

  9. Check your expansion tank

    Water expands when it heats.

    $160–$315to hire out here

  10. Replace your HVAC filter

    Every bit of air your system heats or cools passes through one filter.

    $80–$130to hire out here

  11. Clean the dishwasher filter

    Older dishwashers had hard food grinders.

    $105–$190to hire out here

The rest of Kane County's year

Your county's checklist, one email a month. What's due, what it should cost, and a heads-up when the weather changes the plan. No drip campaigns — we don't have the patience for them either.

Close — but it's not your house yet.

This page plans for a typical local house. The app asks twelve questions about yours and rebuilds the year around the answers — your systems, your dates, your prices.

Free to start · the whole year is $24 · no card required