Don't Get Caught in the Cold: Winter Home Maintenance Tips You Need
Business - Nov, 04, 2024
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When the temperature drops during this time of the year-Winter, you would like to sit in the warm and cosy environment inside your home with a nice hot mug of tea. Though the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, but you need to ensure that you are not going to get caught up with a leaking roof repair or an airy draft getting through the windows or doors, therefore, it is essential to make your home winter-ready ahead of time.
A survey suggests that ‘91% of the builders believe they are busiest during the winters.’ Nonetheless, now is the time-before the arrival of winters, to get all the house jobs done. To help you get started, here’s are some winter home maintenance tips of the tasks you need to do before cold weather arrives:
Maintaining Roof and Exterior
It is essential to maintain your home exterior and roof before the arrival of winters to ensure your roof is able to handle the pressure of snow throughout the winter season. Gutter cleaning or unclogging drains, removing any leaves and other debris is important, because, if gutters get clogged, then the snow that melts from the roof has nowhere to go and will stay on the roof, thus causing potential damage.
Keeping Your Home Energy Efficient
You can follow some tips to keep heating costs down throughout the winter season:
- Look for any air drafts present in windows and doors and seal them with weather stripping, caulk, or window film on the interior and exterior separations.
- Inspect your home insulation and see if it needs a replacement; because with time, insulation loses its effectiveness.
- Installing faucets and hot water-saving shower heads to help with lower energy usage.
- Turning off and unplugging the electronics and kitchen appliances when not in use.
Get your Furnace and HVAC Systems Serviced
You should check the filter of your heating system every 30-60 days before the beginning of winter, and replace it if needed. Also check air ducts for inspecting any air leakage to prevent heat from escaping.
Investing around £100-£250 in its annual service will save you money in the longer run. A technician will inspect your furnace, heat pump or boiler, and also measure carbon-monoxide leakage to ensure that your system is clean and in good repair condition. After inspection, make sure your furnace and HVAC system is functioning efficiently, cleaned, and updated.
Preventing Frozen Pipes
Insulating is essential as pipes tend to freeze because they are often located in the attic or basement with very less insulation. In addition, if a pipe gets burst it can cause severe water damage in your home. Therefore, it is important to install water pipe insulation in advance on cold and hot pipes to keep them warm during winters.
You can also choose other options like heat tape, pipe sleeves, actual cables, and heat reflector lamps that wrap around pipes to heat them during winter.
Check Carbon Monoxide Detectors and All Smoke Alarms
Checking batteries in all carbon monoxide and smoke detectors, replacing expired batteries, and also storing extra backup for the batteries in hand for the winter months is very paramount. Because heating is the cause of fires especially during winters. Also, you should test all the detectors every month.
Clean Your Chimney
Chimneys can unexpectedly become a source of fire hazards if not cleaned and maintained properly and can cause damage to the home interior and exterior. So, it is very essential to clean the chimney, because if you avoid cleaning it, creosote will get deposited and thus can create a fire risk. In addition, blockages in the flue can lead to the backing up of smoke and other gases into your house, thus affecting the air quality and creating a risk to your health and life. Moreover, bird nests or other debris can also be a part of causing unexpected hazards.
Pruning Trees or Shrubs in the Late Winters
According to horticulturalists, winter pruning is beneficial to prune trees and shrubs in the late winter for most plants:
- When the weather warms, it fosters new growth while the plant is dormant.
- It corrects growth issues in older plants, and helps create good structure in young trees.
- Winter pruning diminishes the damage caused from diseases and insects because deciduous trees are dormant.
- It is very easy to identify those branches that need to be pruned because of the leaves that have fallen off.
Mulch Leaves When You Mow
According to the University of Michigan and Purdue, mowing your leaves instead of raking them benefits your lawn. You should only cut the leaves when it dries off into dime-sized pieces because they will fall among the grass blades (using a lawn mower without its bag) where they will decompose and nourish your lawn during the winter. Therefore, mulching leaves into the lawn will work as compost providing a natural source of nutrients and will enhance the growth of your lawn.
Drain your Sprinkler System
Draining your sprinkler system is important to make your home winter-ready as it avoids freezing and leaks in the pipes. It depends upon the slope of your property, if your land slope allows for complete drainage of your drain irrigation system whether manual or automatic, then you can drain your sprinkler system at no cost at all. Alternatively, you need to hire a home maintenance expert for this service and the estimated average cost for a sprinkler system blowout process is £100 to £250, depending on the size of your sprinkler system.
Turn off the Exterior Faucets
Faucet winterization is essential to prevent the bursting of pipes. If you leave your faucet susceptible to cold, it can lead to water damage and flooding in your house. Moreover, undrained water left in the pipes can freeze, causing them to burst as the ice expands.
Diverting Water
Pooling water can cause mould deposition, foundation damage, and basement leaks are the severe issues. A great way to divert the damaging water through adding extensions to downspouts to divert water at least 4 to 6 feet away from your home foundation and the basement walls. You can also put rocks or gravel at the end of the downspout to avoid erosion.
Above-mentioned is the checklist of some cleaning and maintenance tasks that are mandatory to be carried out before the winter comes. However, if you want to hire professionals for such services then you can reach out to Urban Gaffa.
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