Young romantic couple is having fun outdoors in winter before Christmas. Enjoying spending time together in New Year Eve. Two lovers are hugging and kissing in Saint Valentine's Day.
Getting your home ready for winter doesn’t need to be a long or complicated process. In a few simple steps, you can ensure that your home remains warm, efficient, and damage-free throughout the coldest months of the year.
Inspect the Roof
When winter storms begin to blow through, your home’s roof is going to be your first line of defense against many different types of damage. That is just one of the reasons why you should carefully inspect the roof well before the outdoor temperatures drop. Some of the damage that you might need to address includes cracked tiles, pinholes, bent flashing, rusted flashing, and clogged rain gutters. In most cases, that type of damage can easily be fixed by a roofing contractor in a few hours as long as it is caught early on.
Service the Furnace
Your furnace is incredibly important to your family’s comfort, and it should be professionally serviced at least twice a year. During a service call, the technician is going to test the entire system and look for any signs of damage. If your furnace is severely damaged, then you should contact a furnace repair company as quickly as possible so that it will be in perfect working condition well before it is turned on for the first time.
Seal Cracks and Other Openings
Many homeowners don’t realize just how much money they waste every money when their homes have cracks and other types of air leaks. Whenever the weather changes, all of the materials that your home was built with will begin to shift, and that can lead to openings around doors, windows, vents, and pipes. To deal with those openings, you will need high-quality caulking that was designed for indoor and outdoor use. You might also want to invest in a thermal leak detector so that you can easily find unwanted openings.
Prep Outdoor Wood
Any wood that is on the outside of your home is going to take a beating whenever there are rainstorms or freezing temperatures. While no wood products are going to last forever, you can greatly increase their lifespan with a few maintenance steps. For painted wood, you will need to scrape away larger flakes before applying outdoor paint. Any sealed wood that is on the outside of your home might need to be cleaned, sanded, and resealed.
Prepping your home for winter could seem like a time-consuming process, but that project can easily be broken up into a few manageable steps. Once you have winterized your home, you are going to have peace of mind knowing that you have done everything in your power to protect your property.
