The Home Safety Walkthrough: A Monthly Self-Inspection

Certified recovery residences commit to REGULAR self-inspections with a written log — monthly is the rhythm most affiliates expect, and "a log is maintained at each property" is the phrase reviewers look for. This walkthrough is generalized from a state affiliate's current home-inspection checklist. Run it monthly with this app's Inspections feature and the log builds itself, timestamped, with a work order one tap away when something fails.

Smoke and carbon monoxide alarms

• One smoke alarm on EVERY level of the home, plus inside and outside each sleeping area.
• Test and clean alarms monthly; replace batteries as needed; replace the units themselves at 10 years old.
• Where any gas appliance is present: carbon monoxide alarms on each level, replaced by 7 years old.
• Fire extinguishers: functioning, mounted in plain sight, in clear locations — not under a sink behind cleaning supplies.

Cooking

• The cooking area stays clear of anything that can catch fire; the stove hood is clean and vented outside.
• Nothing unattended on a lit stove — make it a house norm, not just a checklist line.
• Kitchen, fridge, microwave, and oven clean enough that mold isn't a finding.

Electrical and appliances

• No cords under rugs; no frayed or cracked cords anywhere.
• Extra outlets come from circuit-protected multi-prong adapters — never bare power strips daisy-chained together.
• Large and small appliances plug DIRECTLY into wall outlets.
• Dryer lint filter and the venting run behind it are clean — dryer fires are one of the most common house-fire causes.

Heating

• Chimney and furnace cleaned and inspected yearly.
• Three feet of clearance between anything flammable and fireplaces, wall heaters, baseboards, and space heaters.
• Space heaters: never on an extension cord, always lab-certified, always with a tip-over shutoff.
• Fireplace and barbecue ash goes outdoors into a covered METAL container, well away from the structure.

Smoking

• The residence itself is smoke-free; designated smoking areas are outside — most houses put them out back, which also keeps the street face quiet for the neighbors.
• Butts go in ashtrays, not on the ground; ashtrays are large, deep, kept away from anything flammable, and emptied into fire-proof containers.

What must be posted on the walls

• Resident rights and requirements.
• The grievance policy and procedure.
• Emergency phone numbers and emergency procedures — with staff and residents actually trained on them, because a poster nobody has read is a compliance artifact, not a safety measure.
• Evacuation maps in conspicuous locations.

Overdose readiness

• Narcan (naloxone) is readily available, and staff AND residents know where it is and how to use it. In a recovery residence this is the single highest-stakes line on the whole checklist. Train on it at orientation and refresh it; many state affiliates and health departments supply kits and training free.

The escape plan

• Two ways out of every sleeping room.
• A designated meeting place near the FRONT of the home, so firefighters know everyone is out.
• Practice the escape plan — a drill, not a document.

Making it stick

Put the walkthrough on the same day each month, assign it to a named person, and log it in the app's Inspections feature every time — pass, fail, or needs-attention per item; file the work order from the same screen when something fails. A year of monthly logs is one of the cheapest, most persuasive artifacts you can hand a certification reviewer, an insurer, or a worried neighbor.

Fire-safety specifics (alarm placement, appliance rules) can vary by local code; when local code and this checklist differ, local code wins. Operational guidance, not legal advice.