10 Winter Home Maintenance Tips

As winter weather starts to appear, you may find yourself wondering how to winterize your home and ensure that it stays warm and dry for the next few months. Cole Val Construction wants to help you protect your home from exterior and interior damage and make your winter less stressful while you occupy your home. Because we spend more time indoors during the winter, you want your home to be the most comfortable it can be. Here are 10 winter home maintenance tips to get you started. 

1- Check Gutters And Drains

The best place to start when it comes to winter home maintenance is to clean out the gutters and make sure snow and rain can drain away from your home. Hiring a professional gutter cleaner can take the stress off of you and ensure all debris is removed properly. Clean gutters prevent things like ice dams, sharp icicles, mold growth, and flooding water around the foundation of your home.

2- Seal Window Wells And Doors

With blustering winds and cold snow outside, you want your home to feel warm and safe from the weather. The best way to keep heat inside your home is to seal windows and doors. Letting the heat escape your home can mean that cold air is getting in. For winter home maintenance, have seals replaced or make sure your windows are sealed. 

Sealing windows and doors can help lower your energy bills too by not overheating your home and letting all of the heat escape outdoors. 

3- Inspect Your Heater And Electrical

As important as keeping the heat in your home, it is even more important to ensure the heater works properly. Inspecting your heater and electrical are great winter home maintenance tips so that you will not be freezing inside your home. If your electrical is broken, it will be hard to cook or clean and heat up water for bathing as well. 

4- Weatherproof Pipes

If you want to avoid frozen pipes, you will need to weatherproof your exterior and interior pipes. Insulating pipes will help idle pipes as well as water taps outside avoid freezing. Running a little bit of water through your pipes every so often throughout the winter can help make sure your weatherproofing is doing its job. 

5- Create A Winter Survival Kit

The last thing homeowners want to happen is a disaster or emergency in their home during a winter storm. Having an emergency kit or winter survival kit will save you some stress and make sure you are prepared if the unthinkable happens. Some items that you already have in your home will make up a survival kit including warm clothes, blankets, dry towels, hand warmers, lighters, dried food, bandaids, and other medical supplies. 

6- Inspect The Roof

Before snow and sleet pile on your roof, you will need to check for holes, damage, and mold growth. If there are cracks or holes in the roof, moisture can seep in easily making your home cold and unbearable. Checking your roof before the bad weather is also safer than fixing a problem will the roof is icy. Climbing on your roof during the winter can lead to a major injury.

Mold also thrives with moisture, so if you leave the growth through the winter, when spring comes, it could have spread farther. Mold should be removed when it appears to limit sickness in your home and deterioration of your shingles. 

7- Put Away Patio Furniture

Putting away your patio furniture before winter will help protect it from being ruined by moisture, or becoming a home to cold and unwanted critters. Any glass or plastic patio furniture can crack from cold weather as well, so storing patio furniture in a covered shed, storage area, or some other cover area is the best way to protect your summer furniture.

8- Flush and Insulate Your Hot Water Tanks

During the cold months, you will need more hot water for bathing and cooking. Flushing your hot water tank will remove any build-up that it has required over previous months so that it will run and cycle water better. 

After you have flushed the hot water tank, you will want to insulate the tank. Use a heated blanket to keep it warm. Not only will this prevent the water from freezing, but it will save you money by not having to overheat the water. 

9- Schedule A Chimney Cleaning

Having a fireplace and chimney cleaning can help remove build-up and detect any problems before you need to run your fireplace more often. Chimney cleaning takes care of the outside and the inside of your chimney which will limit the risk of fires, or animals taking refuge in the chimney. 

10- Reverse Ceiling Fans

Changing the direction of the ceiling fans will help prevent all of your hot air from settling on your ceiling. This easy tip will help keep your home warmer and make your home more energy efficient. Stop overheating your home and try reversing your ceiling fans. 

Protect Your Investment

Once you invest in a home, you want it to be as comfortable and safe as possible. Keep your home safe and protected with these simple winter home maintenance tips.