The impacts of aging and chemical cleaning on the properties and performance of ultrafiltration membranes in potable water treatment were investigated using membrane samples from a full-scale water filtration plant. A range of analytical tools were employed to characterize various membrane attributes, encompassing flux, tensile strength, morphology, surface resident functional groups, and both organic and inorganic foulants. The results of laboratory experiments that simulated chemical cleaning sequences were consistent with those observed in the full-scale water filtration plant, in terms of their effects on the properties of the membranes. It was revealed that aging played a significant role in the deterioration of the tensile strength of the membrane media, as well as the degradation of the intensity of surface resident functional groups, which led to the accumulation of foulants. While cleaning with hypochlorite resulted in a decrease of membrane tensile strength, identical cleaning with citric acid had no such effect. The degradation of membrane tensile strength may be correlated to a decrease in the intensities of functional groups as measured by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). These results suggest that the concentration of hypochlorite and the cleaning duration should both be minimized to reduce their negative impacts on membrane properties.