Preparing Your Home For Winter – It’s Coming
November 10, 2015
Winter is coming!
It’s that time of year Saskatoon, to get the last of all your fall chores done around the yard. As much as we hate to admit it, the cold weather is coming. Is your home Winter-ready?
We have some home maintenance tips for keeping your home beautiful and functioning at its best, all while preparing for winter. You and your home will be thankful you took the extra steps now.
- Check your furnace and to make sure your heating system is working
- Check all weather stripping on windows and doors
- To offset winter dryness, check your humidifier and change out the filter and increase the humidistat
- Turn off outdoor taps and drain sprinklers and garden hose lines
- Clean out gutters and downspouts to avoid flooding and check flashing along eavestroughs and the roof to ensure water cannot seep through
- Repair roof and fill holes on the exterior of the house to ensure critters cannot enter
- Have your chimney inspected and cleaned
- Insulate any exposed piping in crawlspace, attic, outside walls, etc
- Make sure your winter supplies are ready and in good condition: shovels, ice scrapers, salt, fuel for snow blower
If you still have time after the above, here is the full winter-prep checklist:
- Fall gardening: remove annuals, plant bulbs, split perennials
- Hire snow removal service
- Duct cleaning (every two or three years)
- Test sump pump & backwater valve
- Weather stripping
- Fill cracks in driveways, walkways and on steps (they can be trip hazards that get worse when water gets inside and freezes)
- Add extra insulation to the attic
- Move sensitive plants indoors
- Cover your A/C
When all is said and done you will be glad you took the steps to take care of minor home cleanup details – rather than dealing with an emergency in the winter such as a water line breaking because you forgot to blow out our sprinklers or turn off your garden house.
We’d love to hear from you. Is there anything on the list we forgot?