How To Prepare Your Home For Winter
Do you worry that your home isn’t ready for the winter? Are you unsure as to what you need to do before winter arrives to prepare your home for the winter weather?
I know what it’s like when you have a busy life and trying to run your home too, but there are things you need to do to make sure your home is ready for the winter and what it might potentially bring.
Prepare Your Home For Winter
Getting your home ready for the winter is a top priority when it comes to home maintenance.
You don’t want to neglect an area that could potential cause problems later in the winter months. You need to be prepared with all the maintenance and any other areas you need to consider before the cold winter months hit.
Make Sure Your Boiler Is Serviced
One of the most important tasks you need to consider is making sure your boiler is in good working order.
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Boilers can leak and break and it’s not good when this happens in the depths of a cold winter storm. You can at least try to prevent a boiler break down by ensuring that you get your boiler serviced every year.
This simple act can highlight any potential problems that can occur through wear and tear, and some service policies that you can buy come with reduced rates on breakdowns and repairs.
Check out HomeTree for your boiler servicing and care.
Heating Tips
For your boiler to work efficiently you have to check a few areas on a regular basis.
- Your boiler pressure
- Make sure your radiators are working
I like to mark these off in my planner every month to ensure that there is nothing that I can take action on.
For example, if the pressure in the boiler is low, I know how to top this up, or if my radiators aren’t warming up enough, I can easily bleed them and improve their performance.
Knowing how these items work in your home is going to be beneficial to you, asking for advice from a professional is a great place to start.
Winterising Your Home
One area that is critical coming into the winter, as long as your winter is cold and has the potential for snow, then you should be insulating your pipe work and making sure that pipes can’t freeze.
We have an overflow pipe on our boiler and if this freezes the boiler shuts down. So, making sure this pipe is insulated is key to keeping our heating on during the winter.
Winter Home Tips
You don’t want to waste any of your energy heating up the spaces where your hot water pipes flow, consider insulating these to prevent the loss of heat and reducing your energy bills.
If you have a hot water tank, some people still have these, it’s important that you ensure that it is insulated. Consider replacing the hot water jacket on a regular basis to ensure that it’s working and saving you money.
Winter Preparation
Knowing how to turn your water off is so important, if you experience a burst pipe you will want to prevent any more water damage and you can often do this by turning off the water at the mains.
Even though I know where our water mains are, the tap is tough and it’s a difficult job but it is something that I have practiced over the years to ensure that I can still manage it in case there is ever a need.
Getting Your House Ready For Winter
If you have any sort of open fire you must get your chimney swept at least every year, you don’t want to have a chimney fire.
It’s something that you should have carried out by a professional, they should check your flume to ensure that everything looks OK and is working.
Did you know that you might be able to book a chimney sweep through Amazon? It’s called Amazon Home Service and they take the hassel out of finding and paying for a tradesman to do a job or service.
If a flume is blocked or is full of soot not only is the increase the risk of an unwanted chimney fire you could also fill your home with carbon monoxide which is extremely dangerous to you and your family’s health.
Also, when you empty out the ash from your fire don’t store this ash in-doors to allow it to completley cool before putting in the bin or in your garden, harmful carbon monoxide can still be released from hot ash and this isn’t good for your health.
Simple Tips On How To Prepare Your Home For Winter
It’s a great idea to be prepared just in case something happens and you loose power, having the necessary items in case of a power cut is essential to being prepared for the winter months.
You might need to think about these items:
Having a supply and knowing where they are is so important. There is nothing worse than having a power cut and you have no spare batteries for your torch.
Preparing Outside Your Home For Winter
Check the outside of your building, check the roof for slipped tiles and your guttering for blockages.
We’ve started putting these guttering hedghog things into our guttering preventing them from getting clogged and spilling water.
You want to make sure the outside of your home is fit to cope with the weather. If you find something needs attention get it sorted as soon as possible, you don’t want to forget or leave it too late that the weather is too bad to take action.
It’s so important that you make sure that your home is prepared for the winter weather that is going to test it and push it to it’s limits.
You don’t want to give the weather the advantage which is why it’s so important to make sure that you are doing what needs to happen before the weather turns bad.
Winter Tips For Homeowners
Don’t forget about your outside spaces when it comes to preparing your home for winter. You want to make sure anything that you have outside is secure and not going to cause damage or to get damaged in the wind.
Some items include:
- Outside chairs ( I would love one like this!)
- Children’s toys
- Washing lines
- Plant pots
- Sun umbrellas
But also, you need to consider items that might not move in the wind but can suffer from exposure to the winter elements, like caged outside animals, delicate plants and even wild animals that visit your home on a regular basis.
Think about ways that you can make something secure or safe in the winter months. It might mean that you have to put animals in a shed or a garage over winter to give them some greater protection from the weather.
Act now so you don’t loose your pets to the cold weather.
Checking Fences And Gates For Damage
If you have fences and gates make sure they are stable and not liable to collapse in bad weather, there is nothing worse than trying to fix a fence when it’s blowing a gale.
I’ve been there and done that, and I can assure you fixing a fence in dry weather is so much easier and nicer too!
I look at my fencing at least every six months to make sure that nothing is lose or in need of replacement.
So, it’s checked before the winter and again in the spring so if there are repairs the weather is more favourable.
When it comes to your home there are a few things to prepare for winter.
Make sure your boiler is serviced, you don’t want that breaking down in the middle of winter.
Know where to turn your water off from, this is so important you don’t want to make a burst pipe worse, turn the water off at the source.
Make sure everything outside your home is secure for the winter, check the tiles on your roof and your fences are going to make it through the winter.
Have a winter plan in case of emergencies like a power cut or damage caused by weather.
Being prepared for the winter in your home is important because you don’t want to panic when things go wrong, because these things happen, it’s life.
These are just some simple ideas on how to prepare your home for winter.
It might be a good idea for some of the older houses your readers may own, to have a general contractor or handyman check things out, like insulation, window sealing, and general “winterizing” so you aren’t wasting that valuable and EXPENSIVE heat all winter!