How To Maintain Your Home This Winter
Even when the winter makes you want to stay hidden indoors, there are still some tasks that need to be checked on every year to keep your home well maintained. While I live in California and we don’t experience extreme winters, I have friends that have told me the tips and tricks for keeping your home in tip top shape over winter. These annual checks can help you to save on the stress of expensive repairs. Use these tips to keep your home in top condition for the winter, even through the worst of the weather.
Winter is hard on your home so make sure that you’re keeping up with your maintenance tasks to keep everything safe.
Check For Door And Window Drafts
Check to see if you can feel cold air coming in through your windows and doors. Cold air coming in tells you that you have a problem with poor sealing around these areas. A simple way to check where the draft is coming from is to use an incense stick. Light an incense stick and hold it near the door or window you think could be letting the cold in. If the smoke twirls around instead of rising, this tells you that there is a crack. You can fill in these cracks with caulk or you can add weather stripping. Sealing up these cracks can save you a lot of money on your energy bills, as heat is kept in and cold is kept out.
Check For Roof Ice Dams
If you live somewhere where snow and ice is a common problem in the winter, then you can end up with ice dams on the overhang of your roof. An ice dam is an area, usually on the edge of the roof, where snow and running water naturally accumulate. Water flows down the roof and collects at the overhang where there is less heat from inside. The water then freezes. This can lead to water being able to get into your attic space, causing damage to both your roof and your ceilings. To fix this, clear away any ice from the roof with a rake, or install some heated cables along the roof to stop water from freezing and to encourage the water to run off into your gutters, where it should go. While you’re working on the roof, check things like your tiles and metal roof paint are in good repair.
Check Your Fireplace
During the winter, the family will spend more time around the fireplace. If you have a fireplace, get it serviced once a year by a professional to remove any build-up and reduce the risk of chimney fires. A gas fireplace needs to be serviced. Make sure your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors work.
Check For Frozen Pipes
When water freezes, it will expand, which can cause your pipes to crack. Pipes that are exposed to the weather are more likely to freeze. A simple way to prevent your pipes from freezing is to add some insulation. Add pipe sleeves, heat tape, or let your water run a little to keep your pipes from freezing during the coldest months of the year.
