Home Maintenance Tips To Prepare Your House for Winter

With these cold winter months approaching, you want to make sure your home is ready for anything those freezing cold temperatures can throw at it. Here are a few home maintenance tips to get your house ready for the winter season.

Check your eavestroughs. With all those leaves falling off trees, it’s likely your eavestroughs have been getting gunked up with debris. You definitely don’t want to see damage to your house caused by clogged eavestroughs! Get out that ladder and make sure to clean the gutters and downspouts, and double check all the joints.

Replace furnace air filters. Make sure to check your furnace before the weather gets cold enough to turn your heater on. You may want to consider hiring a professional to inspect the furnace and do routine maintenance, if needed. Remember, filters should be changed every month for best performance. Taking regular, proper care of your furnace will keep you from getting costly surprises when something breaks down.

Replace the batteries on your smoke detector. These batteries should be changed every six months.

Check the roof. Making sure your roof doesn’t have any leaks before the rain and snow hit is especially important. If you’re the handy sort, you may be able to fix any small problems yourself. If not, it’s best to call in the professionals.

Replace light bulbs. Save yourself a little money this year by installing energy-efficient light bulbs around the house. We all end up spending more time indoors in the winter, with the cold weather and longer nights. When you consider the fact that holiday time also means decorative lights running all day and all night, the energy bill can start climbing up. Making the switch to high-efficiency compact fluorescent light bulbs during this time of year is good for the environment and good for your wallet.

Stock up on snow removal equipment. Buy de-icing salt for the pavement, walkways and driveways. Get some extra shovels so the kids can help out when the snow starts falling.

Store all lawn furniture in the garage or basement. You don’t want to leave your nice summer patio furniture outside all winter. Make sure to store it all away before the first snowfall hits.

Drain the fuel from gas-powered equipment. Now is the time to put away outdoor equipment such as lawn mowers and weed whackers.

Winterize your plumbing. Freezing temperatures can cause outside faucets and sprinklers to freeze and burst. Make sure that outdoor hoses are drained and properly stored away. A professional plumber can come in and winterize your outdoor plumbing for you. If all else fails, you can turn off the valve connections to your house.