Four Things to Do to Prepare Your Home for the Coming Winter 

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Four Things to Do to Prepare Your Home for the Coming Winter 

We are in the midst of fall. The weather has gotten cooler, the days have gotten shorter. Although we adjusted our lives for autumn by turning on the heat at night and switching to long sleeve shirts and pants, there wasn’t much we had to do to prepare our homes for it. The oncoming winter will be different.  

Temperatures in the majority of the US will drop to freezing during the day and below freezing at night. If we do not ready our homes, then winter can have a devastating effect on them.There is a lot more to do to get ready for winter’s onset. Below is a list of things that must be done before the gelid temperatures hit your home. 

Trim the Trees 

When it rains during the winter, you run the risk of having all of that water freeze if the temperature is low enough. This could cause ice to build up on tree limbs and power lines. There is nothing you can do about the power lines, but the trees are within your control.  

Cut back the limbs on your trees that are overhanging anything that could be damaged should the weight of the ice break them off. You can do this yourself or hire a tree-cutting service to do it for you. Falling limbs could not only damage your roof, but they could damage a neighbor’s house, vehicles, power lines, and any other nearby property.  

Not only do you want to prevent your or someone else’s property from being hit by ice-broken tree limbs, you want to remove the risk of liability. If it is your tree that damages someone’s property, you are responsible for the cost of repairs or replacement.  

Clean the Chimney 

Make sure your chimney is ready for the wintertime. Most people have a HVAC system they rely on for heat during the winter months, so chimneys for them are merely functional decoration. But if you want to snuggle up to a loved one in front of a fire on a chilly winter night, then you need to make sure it is ready for you. 

Unlike tree-trimming services, this is not something you can do on your own. It requires a specific set of tools that would cost more to purchase than it would to pay a chimney cleaning company to do the work for you. Rely on the professionals for this one.  

Prep the Outside 

Just like your roof, your gutters may not survive the winter if they are broken or clogged. Be sure to repair or replace any damaged gutters. If the weight of the snow or ice tears them off of your house, they could damage the roof as well. If you do not clean out your gutters before winter, you can have the same issue.  

Pipes will burst in the winter if you do not prep them as well. Outside faucets need to be drained and covered in an insulating sleeve. If you can access the pipes through a crawl space or basement, then place sleeves on them to prevent bursting. Frozen pipes that break can damage the pipes inside your home as well, creating a much wider, and more expensive problem. 

Repair Your Roof 

You need to take a look at your roof. If there is anything that needs to be repaired, have it fixed now. Do not wait till next spring. The freezing rains can create a sheet of ice that could cause even further damage to your roof than what it has at current. A weakness in your roof may not be able to support the weight of the ice or snow and could collapse under the cold precipitation. This could cause wider damage to your roof as well as create problems inside your home.