Prepare Your Home For Winter

This is a collaborative post.

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Winter is fast approaching, gone are the short shorts and playful dresses of the summer, and in their wake come chunky knits, woolly hats and big boots. With the winter often comes a more unpredictable weather system, and you will often find yourself out in the sun, and then covered in rain five minutes later.

One of the most important places to prepare for the winter is the home. Our home is the place we will spend most of our time during the colder months, wrapped up by the fire watching our favourite movies while sipping hot cocoa. However, to truly prepare our homes for the influx in cold weather, we need to take some measures…

1. Protect the structure of your home with a company such as ArmstrongSteel.com, and then make sure that your walls are fully insulated so that you don’t lose too much heat. You don’t have to insulate your roof and loft completely; however it will help dramatically lower your need for heating in the winter. Light some candles for extra warmth and ambience and enjoy a cosy home.
2. Weather-strip doors and windows to make sure that all small gaps are sealed from the outdoors. Again, this will help you to avoid losing all of the heat you’ve worked so hard to achieve, and in turn lower your bills.
3. Replace Damaged Roof Tiles and Shingles. In the winter: the rain, sleet, hail and snow can appear without any prior warning. To make sure you home is ready for the onslaught of wet weather, you need to seal your home completely and make sure no moisture can creep through.
4. Clear your gutters to avoid them getting blocked and damaged during the cold season.
5. Protect your plants- if you have fragile pot plants in the garden, make sure that you bring them inside before the frost hits. With any trees, try and cut down any branches which could become weighed down by heavy snow and break in the harsh winter.
6. Insulate your water pipes to keep them warm and reduce the time it takes for water to heat up.
7. If you’ve got a tap outside, make sure you remember to turn it off at the source so that the inside on the pipes don’t freeze during the winter.
8. Avoid ice dams – and ice dam occurs when water freezes inside your gutters and causes water to seep into the roof. This can cause damp to enter your home and mould to form. To avoid this, you need to make sure that your roof is well ventilated and insulated too. Consider adding an extra layer of protection by adding in a waterproof membrane as a barrier.
9. Divert any water away from your foundations by adding a couple of extensions to your downspouts. This will mean that any water will drip into the garden and not under the foundation of your home.

 

10. Make sure you get your boiler and heating serviced before winter hits. You’ll want your heating in full health for the colder months, because you don’t want to get to the point where it packs in altogether.