When the weather begins to get colder and the rains set in, don’t forget to prepare your home for the winter months. It will go a long way in helping your home run efficiently and making sure it’s protected from the upcoming cold, damp weather. Below is a convenient checklist to ensure you cover all your bases.
Home Maintenance Check List
- Clean the gutters and downspouts: Free the gutter trough from debris and follow up with a hose to rinse it out until clean. Ice dams will form around anything left –this will back up water and create more headaches for you.
- Repair your leaks: Inspect your roof, windows and siding for separations and areas where wind-driven rain may enter. Use a caulk/sealant to repair and close off possible intrusions, insects and rodents, who love to set up new homes in these areas.…
- INSULATE and insulate some more: Try adding insulation to your attic. Standard insulation thickness should be at least 12 inches — Rule of Thumb: if you can see your ceiling joists, you don’t have enough insulation
- Check your furnace: Change the filter regularly. Make sure the thermostat and pilot light are running. Check the fuel pip for leaks. See if the heat exchanger is cracked…cracks can send carbon monoxide into your home.
- Clean your venting ducts: What your filter doesn’t catch will infiltrate the air in your home —clean the venting ducts annually to eliminate damaging allergens from entering your home.
- Windows: This is a leading source of valuable heat escaping during the winter…if buying new windows isn’t in the budget, look into an insulating kit to get you through until the warmer weather arrives.
- Cover up your chimney: You may want to consider having a chimney cap made, with screens, to protect the flue from critters and foreign objects. Go to csia.org to find certified chimney sweeps in your area.
- Reverse your ceiling fan: A simple task — reversing the fan’s direction will force warm air down and keep the air circulating, increasing your home’s comfort level. A true necessity in the winter!
- Wrap your pipes: Pipes running along crawlspaces, basements, or garages need to be wrapped with a foam rubber sleeve or insulation. There’s nothing worse and more costly than a pipe bursting — cold weather + water = DISTASTER!
- Inspect your Alarms: A good habit to get into is to check your home’s smoke alarm batteries. As a reminder, change them out each Thanksgiving.
**Information taken from MSN Real Estate/Repair
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