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No matter how iron-clad you believe your home to be, come winter you will have a lot of work to do. You see, what works well during summer is not necessarily durable enough to withstand the winds of winter, which is why you need to make sure your home is in a great shape. In order not to miss out on anything, you may want to compose a thorough checklist and run by it every now and then. With this in mind, here are a few issues that you should definitely have in mind when composing the list.
Dealing with the Attic
Sure, it would be most symbolic to start from the foundations, but when it comes to your home’s insulation, the attic is the first place you should take a look at. You need to make sure that your attic insulation is sufficient. In warm climates you can get by with as little as 12” but in the colder regions you will have to go with at least 16”. The most cost effective way to do so is to use fiberglass rolls. You also need to think about the attic doors since this is one of the main escape routes that hot air uses to leave your home. Fortunately, this is nothing that a bit of foam weather-stripping won’t be able to fix.
Check Drains and Pipes
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Frozen pipes are one of the greatest hazards that every homeowner faces during the colder part of the year, so here are some ways you can make sure everything runs smoothly. First, you should insulate water pipes beneath your home with a simple foam pipe insulation. All you need to do is tape it across the pipes, but pay special attention to joints. Next, you need to make sure your drains are in working order. According to people dealing with blocked drains in Sydney area, the number one cause of more serious drainage problems are the DIY repair attempts. The main reason for this is the lack of knowledge and adequate tools to apprehend this problem adequately.
Outdoor Maintenance
As for your outdoors, this is something that should be done before the winter actually begins. This means disconnecting your garden hose, draining all the water from it and storing it safely. It also means removing any cushions or mattresses from your outdoor furniture and covering the parts you won’t move. Finally, it goes without saying that cleaning your driveway regularly improves its functionality a great deal and reduces the slip risk.
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You should also worry about the ice and snow. You see, ice on your external vents can increase your moisture problem. Luckily, this is something that can be solved in under two hours. Next, you should focus on removing ice dams from roofs and gutters in order to remove the risk of them hurting someone. Finally, cleaning snow from any concrete areas of your home can help protect it from the water damage and it will only take half an hour of your time.
Winter Cleaning
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While so far we mostly focused on the negative aspects of winter, it has one great advantage maintenance-wise. You see, during winter you are practically trapped indoors, which means you won’t have to waste your time on backyard maintenance. Instead, you can spend some time on your indoor cleaning and reorganization. This means dealing with home inventory, closets, rearranging items in your kitchen cabinets and much more. Furthermore, you can also take a look at your bathroom drains and see if they need some fixing. All in all, you have plenty of work to do, but for once the time is on your side.
Winter home maintenance is not as scary as some might think. In fact, nine out of ten problems you will encounter are easily solvable with a shovel. For the rest of the list you may be forced to hire professional help, but even this isn’t that expensive seeing how you will need this kind of intervention only a few times a year.