As it nears Christmas and winter approaches, the temperature outdoors will continue to drop. If you don’t prepare your home for lower winter temperatures, you can end up with damages and problems around your home. Late fall is the optimal time to start getting your home ready, so you aren’t left with unpleasant surprises during the holiday season.
Below, we’ve provided several smart steps you can take to ensure your home is ready for whatever winter has in store.
- Inspect Your Furnace: Heating systems collect dust when they aren’t maintained. Dust and debris can lead to blockages that can cause ignition issues. It’s easy to ignore recommendations to inspect your heating system because it may feel like a waste of money, but having your system inspected is considerably less expensive than scheduling emergency repairs for a broken heater after it’s already cold outdoors.
- Cutback Overgrown Trees: When trees hang over the roof of your home, it may make it look cozy, but it can also present a danger to your house and roofline. Winter storms can lead to broken branches and fallen debris from trees that pose a threat to your roof from impact. It’s important that you trim trees now so you can prevent collisions on your property that could lead to damages.
- Insulate Your Pipes: While temperatures may not drop to freezing every winter, the threat of a frozen pipe is reason enough to insulate your plumbing so you can avoid dealing with a burst water pipe. When your water pipes are exposed to colder temperatures in cooler areas of your house, they are susceptible to freezing and rupture. A frozen pipe can lead to a serious mess in your home. So, it’s important to wrap your pipes with foam insulation. The insulation will keep them warm and prevent freezing.
- Add Draft Blockers: If you live in an older home with ill-fitting doors and windows, your home may be suffering from energy loss. If you can stop the cold air from coming in from drafty windows and doors, you can back on the chill in your home. A draft blocker can provide important insulation to keep your home warm this winter season.
- Put Your Fans in Reverse: The ceiling fans in your home have two settings, clockwise and counterclockwise. During the summer, your fans should run counterclockwise to circulate the cool air from your air conditioning. During the cooler winter months, change your ceiling fan to the clockwise setting to push the hot air at the ceiling back towards the floor.
- Clear Your Vents: Inspect all the vents in your home and make certain none of them are obstructed. It’s easy for furniture to get pushed into the path of your registers. You also want to make certain that nothing is being sucked into the intake vents, which can prevent air from being drawn into your heating system. When your heater is starved of air, it can damage your heating system.
- Clear Your Gutters: Your gutters should never be clogged, and you should monitor them in every season, but during the winter months, a blocked gutter can be extremely damaging to your home. When fallen leaves and debris are backlogged in your gutters, they can create dams that can freeze. These frozen gutters can damage your home, gutters, and roofline.
The Importance of Knowing What Service You Need
At Wallner Plumbing, we work hard to provide our customers with important seasonal maintenance to ensure your home is ready for the coming winter season. Call us today at (530) 223-5622 to schedule an appointment.
