Owning a home is a huge responsibility. Part of this responsibility involves preparing your home for the different seasons of the year by completing different home maintenance tasks. In this regard, there is no season more important that you have to prepare for than winter. If you don’t take the proper steps to winterize your home, you may end up paying for it dearly later. With that in mind, below are four of the best ways to prepare your home for the winter.
Clean Out Your Gutters
One of the most important things you can do to prepare your house for winter is to thoroughly clean out your gutters. Cleaning out leaves, dirt and gunk from your gutters is a gritty job that pretty much no one enjoys doing. Still, the task is vitally important. During the winter, a lot of snow will accumulate on your roof. When that snow melts, it needs somewhere to go. If your gutters are clogged, much of that snow melt may end up inside your home instead of safely flowing down away from your house.
Repair Your Foundation
If your home has serious foundation issues, you should get those issues fixed well before winter. Without foundation repair, foundation issues can become even bigger problems that are exacerbated by the freezing and thawing cycles of winter. It may also lead to issues with your windows that could make your home colder. Search for the telltale signs of foundation issues in your home such as cracks in walls and sticking doors well before winter.
Insulate Your Home
One of the biggest issues during the winter for homeowners is keeping their homes warm enough. Having to rely so much on your furnace will likely lead to your monthly utility bills skyrocketing. One thing that keeps your home warm during the winter is insulation. Since heat in a home rises, this is especially the case for insulation in the attic. Inspect your insulation before winter to see if it’s adequate. Better insulating your home is a good investment that will pay for itself over time.
Insulate Your Pipes
Something else that needs to be insulated in a home to protect it from the threat of winter is its plumbing. If certain important pipes in your home are not insulated, they may end up freezing during the winter. That could lead to the nightmare scenario of your pipes actually bursting.
Take all the necessary steps to properly winterize your home. It will require some work. However, it’s well worth it. Not preparing your home for the winter can lead to even more serious and expensive problems you want to be sure to avoid.