It is important to get your house ready for the colder months ahead to keep it safe. Often, there are many different places that people overlook when it comes to preparing for the colder weather.
Clean Out Your Gutters: This is something most people do not think of when it is time to prep your home for winter weather. The gutter system collects all the leaves and debris from the summer storms. They need to be cleaned to properly drain. If they’re not cleaned, it can cause water to be built up and freeze over. This can cause incorrect drainage and have water leak into your home.
Seal Your Windows: There are a number of different types of seal you can use for this. There are two common types of seals:
- Rubber Weather Sealing: These are strips of self-stick rubber. You just peal off the paper over the self-stick, and cut where you need for the perfect fit for your window.
- Window Insulation Film: This includes plastic shrink film that you can apply in the inside of the window.
Weather Strip Your Doors: This is something very common people use to keep cold air from coming in and warm air going out. You can purchase this at hardware stores.
Check Your Chimney: Be sure to have a trained professional come and clean the flute out. If you don’t use your fireplace often, you can also get it filled. This way there is no air leaking out.
Seal Off Your Garage: It is common for people to overlook this part of their house because it isn’t part of the main living space. It is important for every garage door to check the chains and other moving parts. Because of the cold, these parts can lose lubrication and start to malfunction. Also, check these parts for rust as well.
There are also other ways to keep your garage safe during winter:
- Replace Old Weather Stripping: Weather Stripping can get dried out and crack over the seasons. This is a simple fix that can be added to the door that leads into the house and around the bottom of the garage door itself.
- Buy A Garage Heater: This is something simple that can be added in the corner of the garage. You can add gas or electric heaters inside. The gas will need installation into a current gas line, but the electric will hike up the electric bill. Plus, if the electric goes out, you will still have a place to go for warmth.
Light The Way: Outside decorations are always fun to add, but adding solar powered lights and LED festive light strands outside can help you. This is because it gets darker earlier in winter, and will help you not to slip and fall! Make sure that:
- They can withstand the rain, snow and ice.
- The LED festive lights have an automatic turn off switch for the day-time.
- Buy energy-efficient light bulbs for your outdoor lighting. This will help save money.
All of these things can help protect your home during the fall and winter. Midwestern weather can be unpredictable, so it is better to prepare before the cold weather to hit.
When you are prepping your house for fall and winter and notice something wrong, call us!