Orange County home maintenance, city by city
Orange County is 34 cities, plus unincorporated communities such as Ladera Ranch and Midway City. What your home needs depends mostly on two things: when it was built and how close it sits to the ocean. Here are all 36 places OakTend covers, by area.
OakTend is free home maintenance help for Orange County homeowners. Add your home once and it builds a plan around its age and systems.
Get started freeNorth Orange County
North county grew fastest in the 1950s and 1960s, so much of its housing is single-story tract homes on concrete slabs that are now well over 50 years old. At that age the original parts are the story: water pipes that run under the slab, electrical panels sized for a time before central air and car chargers, and roofs on their second or third covering. If you own one, find out what has been replaced and what is still original.
Central Orange County
The middle of the county is a mix. Santa Ana and Orange have some of the county's oldest neighborhoods, with homes from before the Second World War, next to postwar tracts in Garden Grove, Westminster and Fountain Valley. Irvine is the exception: most of it was planned and built from the 1970s on, so its homes are newer and most belong to a homeowners association. Older homes here share north county's list. In a newer home, the first big replacements are usually the water heater and the air conditioner, long before the roof.
Coastal Orange County
Salt air is hard on a house. Close to the water, paint, exterior metal, window and door hardware, garage door parts and outdoor air conditioner coils wear out sooner than the same parts a few miles inland. Coastal homes do better with regular rinsing, earlier repainting, and a yearly look at anything metal. Drywood termites are common in coastal Southern California too, so a regular termite inspection is worth keeping on the calendar.
South Orange County
South county is the newest part of Orange County. Most of Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, Aliso Viejo, Rancho Santa Margarita and Ladera Ranch was built as planned communities from the late 1960s through the 2000s. San Juan Capistrano is the exception, with some of the oldest buildings in the county. Many south county homes have tile roofs and belong to an association that handles part of the outside upkeep, so check your association's rules to see what is yours to maintain.
Two seasons every Orange County home shares
Santa Ana winds usually arrive in the fall, and most of the year's rain falls between late fall and early spring. Our month-by-month calendar and wind and wildfire prep guide cover what to do before each.