You Need To Winterize Your Home. Here's How

 

The winter months are starting to close in. Depending on where you live, that could mean a lot of snow. Regardless of what part of the country you’re in, you should expect a chill to set in eventually.

While that could be fine when you’re out and out, you wouldn’t want it in your home. That means that you’ll need to winterize your home. Not sure about what the process is? You’ll want to know a few things before you start.

Why Winterize Your Home

You might be wondering why you need to winterize your home. There are multiple reasons for this. Keeping the cold out is the most obvious, although there are other reasons. It also means making your home more energy-efficient.

In doing so, you’ll focus particularly on warmth and comfort. That’ll typically entail focusing on a few areas, such as your doors and windows. You’ll need to look at several other places, too, such as your roof, the walls themselves, and even the floor.

Installing insulation is perhaps the most obvious way of winterizing your home. If you’ve taken care of that, you’d assume that your house is winterized. While that’s the largest thing to do, it isn’t the only one.

If you want to take care of this properly, you’ll need to look at a few specific areas.

How To Make Your Home Winter Ready

Get The Pipes Checked

You’ll need to put a lot of effort into protecting your pipes from the colder weather. If any are exposed to the outside, you should consider insulating them. Doing so will be much easier than you’d expect, although that could depend on where exactly the piping is.

If they’re not insulated, they run the risk of freezing over during the winter. That’ll have a domino effect on your water and other systems. You should also check your pipes for leaks. If you find any, they should be relatively easy to fix.

In many cases, installing a gasket might be enough to address it. You’ll need to make sure that you use the right gasket material, so that you can prevent rust buildup and other damage. You should be able to do all of this yourself. Some leaks - and other issues - may need a professional, however.

Get them done before the winter starts to prevent any issues.

Trim Nearby Trees

If there are trees on your property, then you should give these a trim. The closer they are to your home, the more recommended this is. If they’re near your windows or doors, that’s especially true.

Snow and ice can build up on the branches. While the snow falling wouldn’t be too much of a bad thing, the branches themselves could break and fall. Once they’re weighed down enough, this becomes increasingly likely.

Depending on the size of the branch, this could do a lot of damage. The last thing you’d want is you or someone else getting hurt. And that’s without mentioning the potential property damage.

Block Any Air Leaks

Drafts can have a significant impact on your energy bills. While this mightn’t be too noticeable, it can add up to quite a lot over the winter. You’ll need to get rid of these leaks to prevent this. Thankfully, this should be quite easy.

Check around your doors and windows for any cracks or holes. These will more than likely be the cause of your draft. Filling them in with some calk or sealant will fix this quite quickly. Afterwards, it’s worth sanding it down and painting it so that it matches the wall.

Replicate this process around each of your doors and windows to maximize the impact. Once you’re done, you shouldn’t have to worry about any more drafts.

Install Storm Doors & Windows

You don’t need to live in an area affected by many storms to install storm doors and windows. Putting them in could reduce your energy bills significantly. That’s primarily because they’ll let much less air in and out of your home.

That’ll make sure that you prevent any cold air from coming in. Since there’s no hot air going out, you wouldn’t need to worry too much about heating costs. Depending on where you live, there might be some tax refunds or similar initiatives that can help with the price.

That should help make them much more affordable.

Check Your Insulation

While you might already have insulated your home, it’s worth giving it an inspection. If it’s been a while since it was installed, this is especially vital. Over time, insulation can be damaged or worn down.

You’ll need to find any parts that have suffered from this. If there are any, then you’ll need to fix them. In most cases, you’ll need to remove the damaged part and replace it with new insulation. That should be relatively easy to do, although it will take some time.

Reverse Your Ceiling Fans

Not many people know that they can reverse their ceiling fans. If you’re wondering how this relates to winterizing your home, you could be surprised. Typically, ceiling fans will blow cold air around the home.

Once they’ve been reversed, however, they’ll spin in the opposite way. That’ll make them force warmer, lighter air around the room instead. If you want to keep the heating off but want to feel a little warmer, this could make all the difference.

It shouldn’t be difficult to take advantage of this; most ceiling fans have a button that you can press to make this switch. Just remember to switch it back once the warmer months come back.

Wrapping Up

Knowing how to winterize your home is half the battle. The rest is to actually do it. While it might take some effort, it’ll save you much more in the long term. It’ll also save you a significant amount of money.

Not only will you save on any potential repairs, but your electricity and heating bills should be reduced. What’s stopping you from giving it a shot?

This is a collaborative post.