50+ Sample Maintenance Checklists

What Are Maintenance Checklists?

A maintenance checklist is like a strategy map of how a maintenance program should play out. It is a document that contains the itemized list of maintenance tasks that are prepared by experts or whoever is in charge of maintenance. And whoever is expected to carry out every maintenance task should follow the checklist’s instructions rigidly. Just like any checklist, whoever uses it will put a checkmark after every action item that is already finished until all maintenance tasks are done.

According to State Farm, you should set aside at least 1%–4% of your house’s value for your home maintenance fund.

Why Should You Have a Maintenance Checklist?

A well-made maintenance checklist gives you plenty of advantages. And here are some of the best reasons why you should prepare a maintenance checklist:

Detailed Step-by-Step Maintenance

Expect a maintenance checklist to be detailed. It naturally shows you the step-by-step process of how to conduct maintenance efficiently. Just like a safety checklist, you can surely rely on the checklist to ensure safety that you observe the right steps to take in completing a maintenance program. So whether you are new or already adept to conducting maintenance checks, the maintenance checklist is already there to provide you the details, especially in checking if you did things according to plan or not.

Easy-to-Use Reference

A maintenance checklist is not only detailed as it is also an easy-to-read reference. In fact, the instructions are not written in long paragraphs as they can simply be enumerated in a list. And if you have trouble remembering every task involved in the maintenance process, you won’t forget about every task anymore since the maintenance action items are listed in the checklist. So it is no excuse to miss any maintenance action because the maintenance checklist has every detail covered on what you should do from start to finish. Also, don’t forget that standard checklists are easy to use because you merely put a checkmark per finished task, making it easy to track whether you are nearly done or still on a long way to go.

Flexible for Different Types of Maintenance

Maintenance may refer to maintaining a house, office, apartment, car, machine, or any asset. So making a maintenance checklist per asset you find important is essential so you won’t see those assets in bad condition. Just make sure the data in your maintenance checklist matches the type of maintenance or asset you use it for. For example, it would be bad to use a facility maintenance checklist when your concern is to maintain a vehicle. Make it make sense.

Leads to the Benefits of Effective Maintenance

Maintenance checklists lead you a step closer to conducting effective maintenance. A lot of people know how certain steps to maintain a certain asset work. However, it does not mean that every thinkable maintenance action should be taken because only the important and relevant ones should be done. Also, maybe you can conduct maintenance services excellently but you are wrong in terms of which maintenance action to do first until last. So for an effective guide on your next maintenance plan, such as knowing the chronological order of steps, meeting deadlines, and ensuring correct measures are done while maintaining anything, you can’t go wrong with a maintenance checklist.

Parts of a Maintenance Checklist

Maintenance checklists may differ in purpose so it only makes sense that their content would be different from one example to another. However, there are standard parts that are naturally seen in most maintenance checklists. And these are the following:

Title: A maintenance checklist should have its own title in which you can easily identify it as a maintenance checklist. Of course, the simplest way to do that is by using the words “maintenance checklist” in the title itself. But, you can be more specific by mentioning that it is a vehicle maintenance checklist, building maintenance checklist, predictive maintenance checklist, or type of maintenance.Statement of Purpose: Jot down your maintenance checklist’s official statement of purpose. This part clarifies the type of maintenance being focused on, what asset/s will be maintained, and the reason/s for conducting maintenance. The purpose helps anyone who reads the checklist to not lose track of the overall intent in doing maintenance or following the maintenance checklist.Maintenance Date: Maintenance will not just be conducted once; it happens regularly. So be sure to specify the maintenance schedule or date in the checklist so you will be sure as to when the maintenance program must be followed. Besides the specific day, month, and year of when to do maintenance, you also denote the frequency of maintenance whether it is a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual schedule.Maintenance Action Items: The maintenance checklist would be filled with a whole maintenance task list. These action items are every single task you should accomplish in order to complete the maintenance process. And what matters the most is that every task is determined and clearly instructed so as not to confuse whoever is conducting maintenance. You can organize them according to priority level, urgency level, or difficulty level.Description of Every Item: In case there is a need to insert a brief explanation as to what every action item means, write a short description after every item. This is the part where you specify what will be done or include important notes that the maintenance person should know while doing a certain item, especially warnings and disclaimers.Checkboxes: A checklist without checkboxes is like a cake without icing. Checkboxes complete the checklist because it is through those boxes, lines, circles, or however you present them, that you can mark if every action item is complete or still in progress. And the goal in using a maintenance checklist is to make sure all those checkboxes are marked as it indicates that the job is officially done.Metric System: Besides following the action items in the checklist, another function of using the maintenance checklist is to use a metric system for evaluating assets. And this is how assets go under assessments such as using a Likert scale to identify if an asset is in excellent shape, good, neutral, poor, or needs improvement.Notes: Finally, give room for notes. This extra section is written for other concerns, especially concerns while you are already conducting the maintenance. An example is when a maintenance officer writes feedback and remarks after noticing some significant observations while maintaining assets.

How to Create an Excellent Maintenance Checklist

You already know what a maintenance checklist is, why it is important, and what its building blocks are. Now for the main course, apply everything you learned so far into making the maintenance checklist itself. And these are the only steps you need to ace the process:

  • Step 1: Identify Your Maintenance Purpose and Its Designated Maintenance Processes

    First things first, what type of maintenance are you going for? Or perhaps, what specific asset are you maintaining? Identifying the right purpose of your maintenance program is essential so you would know what possible maintenance processes would be enlisted in your maintenance checklist later on. So whether you are to maintain a house, gym, cleaning service equipment, dump truck, or any asset at all, your checklist’s details should be designed according to what the asset needs.

  • Step 2: Select a Sample Maintenance Checklist Template to Customize

    There is no need to make maintenance checklists from scratch. Instead, optimize any of the 50+ sample maintenance checklist templates found in this article. Besides a free maintenance checklist template, you may opt for more specific examples such as a preventive maintenance checklist template, daily home maintenance checklist template, or even an inspection checklist spreadsheet. Besides being a downloadable and printable template, each template is actually editable. So work your way into your template and personalize its features according to your preference.

  • Step 3: Include the Basic Parts of a Maintenance Checklist

    The title, statement of purpose, until notes were not just discussed for naught. Be sure you add the basic parts of a maintenance checklist in your template so that the most vital information will be covered. Without the standard parts, then your checklist would be incomplete. Thus, maintenance may not run effectively. However, there is always room to add more resources to your checklist. You could insert other parts such as a maintenance budget sheet, alternative maintenance action items, and more.

  • Step 4: Organize Your Checklist in the Simplest Way Possible

    Your maintenance checklist may seem complete by having lots of information. However, loads of data could make your checklist hard to follow. So work on arranging and organizing your checklist’s details so it will be simple to follow and understand. An example is to use visual organizers such as tables and charts in presenting data. Or, you change complex words into simpler forms to prevent misconstrued instructions. And it is only after you make an evaluation that the maintenance checklist is excellent from top to bottom that you decide to finally depend on it.

FAQs

How much money should you budget for maintenance?

The amount of money you allocate for the maintenance budget depends on the value of the asset itself. A common practice in home maintenance is to set aside around 1%–4% of the house’s value for the home maintenance budget.

How can you arrange the maintenance checklist?

You can organize or arrange the action items in the maintenance checklist according to their similar elements. Examples include arranging by asset, system, year, interval, season, contractor, skill level, priority level, and urgency level.

What are the two main formats of a maintenance checklist?

Maintenance checklists have two primary formats: (1) condition-based maintenance and (2) time-based maintenance.

When it comes to implementing regular maintenance in the smoothest way possible, maintenance checklists can certainly make a difference. You deserve to know the condition of your assets and how much impact you brought every time a maintenance action is conducted. And that fact that the list of instructions is written in a maintenance checklist already, you are guaranteed to finish your work as intended. So be sure to use sample maintenance checklist templates as your references and keep your assets in the best condition possible. Download now!