Winter Ready Home Guide: 10 Updates Youll Love

Winter is a tough time for any home, however, you can make your home less prone to damage by paying closer attention to simple tasks throughout the year. This can be as simple as removing large tree branches hanging over the house, or making sure you have enough light in your home during those long winter nights, as winter ready home guides would suggest. This winter ready home guide mentions a few other tips that can help keep your house in tip-top shape this winter.

Protect Indoor Pipes

Frozen water pipes are a leading cause of property damage, yet many homeowners don’t have plans for that worst-case scenario. And while it might seem like common sense, you need to be especially careful in the wintertime—when it’s much colder outside than the rest of the year. An estimated 30 percent of homeowners experience frozen or burst pipes each winter. With the help of a professional and a winter ready home guide, you can prevent this from happening.

Before the snow starts to fly, shut off all the major water pipes. When temperatures start to drop, turn on the heater, and monitor the temperatures of your outdoor faucets. As temperatures drop, water temperatures can decrease by 20-30 degrees. If your outdoor faucets are starting to freeze up, it’s probably time to shut them off and turn on a propane-powered water heater.

Use carpet sealer or putty to insulate the seam where your carpet meets the floor. In addition to keeping water out, the foam insulation will also prevent condensation from collecting under your carpets. If your pipes start to freeze, make sure to use the right tools to thaw them. Wait for it to thaw completely before turning them on again. Leaving them to warm up can prevent even more damage.

For inside pipes, you should also consider using insulated wicking mats instead of carpets. These mats absorb water, providing moisture and heat to your pipes, rather than trapping them in your home.

Consider protecting outdoor pipes as well. Insulating pipes makes a big difference, but if your ground is frozen, the job is much more difficult. If your pipes do freeze, make sure to turn off the water, and consider putting plastic over the exposed portions of your pipes in order to prevent water from freezing.

Insulate Your Attic

After you’ve secured your home loan, you might think all of the work is over, but this is where all the work begins. While insulation will help you keep your heat in, it’s a good idea to make sure you’re keeping warm and dry as well. Whether you have a crawlspace in your home or an attic that’s not connected to the rest of the house, it’s important that you’re properly insulating the space.

It can be a good idea to cover attics, basements, or crawlspaces with proper insulation, but it’s also a good idea to have the insulation installed by a professional. HVAC and boiler technicians are skilled at insulating your attic, as well as AC installation, so it’s easy to save a lot of money by hiring someone to do the job.

In addition to providing warmth and protection, insulation also acts as a dehumidifier, filtering out moisture that could also make your walls and ceilings swell, decreasing the likelihood of mold growth.

While the average person only installs 1-2 insulations every 10 years, it’s a good idea to look into getting an insulation inspection by a professional. That way, they can tell you if you need to add any additional insulation to the areas you already have in place.

While winter is the most energy-intensive season, it’s also a good time to start thinking about how to conserve energy. How can you make your home more energy efficient? Start by putting in a programmable thermostat, which will allow you to adjust your home’s temperature remotely. You can do this while you’re away from your house, or on a trip. Smart thermostats can also make it simple to adjust the temperature, based on whether you’re at home, or away.

Winter Ready Home Guide: Winterize Your Home with a Deck

Every homeowner should be prepared for the cold winter season, including the heartiest of homeowners, with a proper deck. Decking can extend the life of your house, and it provides protection from the elements. However, in order to truly survive the winter, you need to plan properly. The most effective way to ensure your deck survives is by having snow and ice removed at least once every three or four days. It’s better to have it removed than to pay a professional deck builder to remove it, but some landscaping companies and hardscaping companies might also be of use when it comes time to replace your deck.

According to most winter ready home guides, an easy way to prepare your deck for winter is by simply washing the wood to remove any loose dirt or dust. This helps the wood not only to dry but to reverse the deterioration. This prevents the sun and wind from cracking your deck. Once you’ve rinsed the deck, be sure to rake all of the leaves off of it. After removing the leaves, you’ll want to mulch the area, in order to add more insulation.

Mold

It may seem odd, but you should take care of your basement if you want to keep it winterized. A basement, while usually dry, is subject to moisture. This moisture can expand and leave the basement vulnerable to mold and dampness. The best way to keep your basement dry is to build a basement-tile system. These are specifically designed tiles that can keep moisture from seeping into the house. Your best bet is to have the tile installed and sealed before the winter season even begins.

Mold can easily spread, and this can cause interior deterioration as well. However, frequent mold testing can prevent this from happening at all. You can have a professional come to your home, and inspect for mold. If they find mold, they’ll seal it up. In addition to regular mold inspections, you can also try dry-walling the basement, as well as adding insulation.

While it’s hard to completely prevent mold, you can do a lot to make sure it stays at bay. The key is to clean up regularly, and to make sure that the mold spores are killed before they spread.

Weather-proof Your Home with Caulking and Weather Striping

As mentioned above, a damp basement can cause damage to your home. Not only that, but mold can spread and be a health hazard, as well. In order to keep your home safe and winterized, you need to prevent any leaks from happening, and prevent moisture from getting in. Caulking is one of the best ways to do this. As the winter season starts, put caulk on the inside of doors, windows, and anywhere that may have openings. Once the season has passed, remove the caulk, and be sure to thoroughly clean the areas that you caulked.

While some homeowners seem to believe that concrete is the best way to insulate their homes during the winter, the truth is that steel reinforcement is the best way to do this. In order to install steel reinforcement to your home, you need to have a qualified contractor do this. This is not a cheap method, and it will definitely require some work, as well as a lot of ongoing maintenance. A concrete company that specializes in residential services will be your best bet for this type of work, while steel contractors are generally used for commercial jobs.

Aside from caulking your basement, you can also weatherstrip your home. Like most winter ready home guides say, if you live in a winter climate, you’ll want to weatherstrip your windows and doors to provide extra insulation. In addition, you can make sure your doors, windows, and even your garage doors are properly sealed, to keep the cold out.

Heating

Another winter ready home guide tip: hot water heaters are another area to inspect for home winterizing. If you don’t heat with natural gas or electricity, you need to heat with an alternative heating source. In order to do this, you’ll need to have a qualified contractor install a gas line to your home, in order to keep the pipes from freezing. After you’ve installed the line, you can heat your home with either natural gas or electric heating. If you want to use electric heat, be sure to install a thermostat that will keep your temperature between 68 degrees and 70 degrees.

A heat exchanger is another way to heat your home, which is necessary in order to prevent a buildup of carbon monoxide in the home. This allows the warm house to exhaust its heat into the winter air, in order to prevent the pipes from freezing, as well as the home from overheating. If you have a heat exchanger installed, this is especially helpful, because you can preheat your home in order to stay warmer during the winter months.

Windows

A residential window tint can help to winterize your home and to reduce the impact of outside heat. This is great in the winter time when your windows will be blocked by snow and could cause your heat loss to be much higher than it normally would. In addition to using tinted windows, you can also seal your windows, in order to keep out the cold air and to insulate your home from the cold. Something that you can do to protect your windows is to install storm windows, to keep the cold air out, and to seal the windows in order to prevent energy lost to cooling during the summer months.

Repair Loose Roofing

If you suspect your roof is leaking or has loose shingles, or if your home is on a slope, you can make repairs, or do maintenance, as needed. In order to help protect your home during winter storms, it is advisable to have a professional roofer or contractor do the work. Any major repairs should be done during the spring, and any minor repairs should be done during the fall. But during the winter, you’ll need to find a professional to do roofing maintenance or to repair shingles, in order to provide the protection you need for your home.

If you want to install energy-saving insulation, and you can afford it, it is worth taking advantage of this resource. The savings will be worth the time, and you’ll need only minimal maintenance, as opposed to the long-term maintenance needed for many other methods of home energy conservation.

You can add roofing, in order to provide additional reinforcement for your home. If you need to add roofing, you can purchase a roofing system, which is designed to be installed on your home. It can be installed quickly and with ease. Once the local roofer does this, they can add solar panels, which will provide additional insulation, as well as increase energy savings. The most important thing is that you get qualified roofers to install a quality roofing system on your home.

Repairing or replacing your roofing is not easy work, as you will need to do some heavy lifting. This will be extremely difficult for someone who is not comfortable doing this type of work. If you are worried about this, a reputable roofing contractor can help you determine if your roof could be improved. Loose shingles or rotten roofs can really affect the quality of your home, as well as its performance and value, especially when it comes to energy efficiency.

Financing Your Roofing Costs

If you have cash available to spend, you can work out a payment plan, in order to save yourself money and avoid debt. However, you can also purchase roof repair through a third party. This can be a loan, through a trustworthy lender, or you can be offered a loan from the vendor.

However, with these types of loans – which are similar to home loans – you’ll need to pay some interest.

Financing Your Roofing Costs

If you have cash available to spend, you can work out a payment plan, in order to save yourself money and avoid debt. However, you can also purchase roof repair through a third party. This can be a loan, through a trustworthy lender, or you can be offered a loan from the vendor. However, with these types of loans – which are similar to home loans – you’ll need to pay some interest.

Takeaways

In conclusion, your roof is an asset, and roofing repairs will protect your home from leaking water and harsh weather conditions. It’s important to get your roof repaired when needed but always consult with a professional first. As far as winterizing your home, you’ll need to make sure your gutters are clear of debris, and that your gutters are not clogged with ice, snow, or anything else.