How To Prepare Your Home For Winter | Shanetta DIY Life

 How To Prepare Your Home For Winter

Preparing your home for the winter is something you should do as a top priority. 

The cold weather can be harsh, and ice and snow can cause serious damage to your home. 

To prevent this, you should do a few simple steps to make your house more weather-resistant. 

These include clearing out gutters, flushing out pipes, and pruning trees around your house.

Reduce drafts

As winter sets in, it is important to prepare your home for the cold months ahead. 

Properly preparing your home will reduce the cost of heating your home, as well as its utility bills. In order to ensure your home is as warm as possible, it is important to seal drafts. 

To do this, use white or clear paintable caulking to seal cracks in the walls and baseboards. 

Apply it smoothly with a damp cloth or finger. Also, you can purchase window film kits to seal drafty windows.

Drafts can increase your heating bills and ruin the cozy feel of a home. 

In addition to that, they can cause mold and pest infestations. 

Fortunately, reducing drafts in your home can lower your energy bills by as much as 20 percent per year.

Clear gutters

Fall is the perfect time to prepare your home for winter by clearing out your gutters. However, the cold and wet weather can make the task of gutter cleaning dangerous. 

In such a situation, it is recommended that you hire a professional to take care of the task for you. 

In the autumn, plenty of leaves and other debris will collect in your gutters and downspouts. 

Furthermore, you should check the shingles on your roof to make sure that they are secure.

Keeping your gutters free of debris is an excellent way to avoid major problems in the future.

After all, if you don't clear the gutters, you'll be unable to direct water away from your home. A clean gutter system is one of the best ways to protect your home from ice and snow.

Flush out pipes

It's important to flush out pipes to prepare your home for winter. 

Without doing so, your pipes may freeze and break, which can turn into a costly repair job later. 

To avoid this, drain your outdoor faucets before the first cold night of the year. 

Next, shut off your water supply valve, which is usually located near the water meter in your basement, garage, or crawl space.

Check every drain in your home. 

Clean out any hair, dirt, and other debris that can clog drains. Avoid having to call a plumber because of a clogged drain.

Clear trees around your home

During winter, it is essential to take proper care of your trees and shrubs. A few simple steps can make a world of difference. 

To protect your plants, you should take steps to clear trees and shrubs around your home. First, examine your property thoroughly. 

Look for hazards, including limbs that encroach on power lines. If necessary, prune the trees or trim them.

After pruning, clear deadwood from trees and make sure they are properly pruned for their species. 

If possible, rope or cable down any branches that are dangerous. Trees exposed to repeated freezing and thawing may suffer severe damage. 

Moreover, repeated freeze-thaw cycles may cause weakening of the soil and may have young saplings from the ground. Mulch helps to maintain the soil's temperature and keeps it insulated from moisture loss.

Inspect HVAC equipment

There are many components to your HVAC system, and you need to ensure that everything works together properly to keep your home comfortable. 

You can keep these components in good condition throughout the year by performing regular inspections. 

These inspections will help you avoid costly repairs or even replacements. 

You should also cover outdoor HVAC units to prevent frost and snow from affecting their proper operation.

An inspection will include checking the thermostat settings and the efficiency of your system. Your HVAC technician will also check the moving parts and lubricate them as needed to prevent excess wear and increase efficiency. 

Electrical components will also be checked, measured, and tightened. Your technician will also check the condensate drain to make sure that the water is draining properly. 

Finally, they will check the heat exchangers to ensure that there are no cracks or leaks in the system that could lead to carbon monoxide buildup.