Preparing Your Home for Winter
| Like it or not, winter is here! These tips for getting your home ready for the cold can save you heating costs and avoid costly structural damage. |
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| Seal the air leaks Caulking window or foundation cracks and updating the weather stripping on doors can make your house less drafty and reduce home heating costs by as much as 10%. Test smoke and CO detectors Changing batteries is cheap and easy, but essential as winter approaches. With your furnace blasting and an increased use of fireplaces, your winterized home can build up dangerous fumes that can harm your health. Plus, a malfunctioning furnace or fire in the fireplace can cause house fires! Most house fires happen in winter. Tune up your furnace (or heat pump) Don’t wait until the first frost to get your furnace inspected for burner cracks or carbon monoxide leakage. If you put this off and something goes wrong on that first day of use, you and a thousand of your neighbors will be calling furnace repair at the same time. A house call could be delayed for days. Clean your gutters No one likes getting up on a ladder and cleaning gunk out of gutters, but this simple task can save you from water in the basement, siding rot or roof water backup from ice dams. If you don’t like heights, hire someone. Tune up the snowblower If you are in a climate that gets snow, don’t wait until the first dump to see if your snowblower works. Fire it up ahead of time, and if it won’t start, take it in for a tune-up. And make sure you have shovels, ice choppers and ice melt handy. This list addresses the big ones. But there are lots of other important things you can do to get your home ready for winter. Here’s a quick checklist: drain outside faucets, blow out underground sprinklers, clean creosote buildup in the chimney, reverse your ceiling fans, winterize your lawnmower, test your sump pump, bring in garden hoses, replace furnace filters, foam-insulate exposed water pipes, check attic insulation and install insulation around home outlets. Isn’t home ownership fun!? |
| Fast Fact If you set your thermostat back 10 to 15 degrees at night when you sleep, you can reduce your winter heating bill by 10%. |
| As always, if you’re thinking of listing, or you don’t own a home and are ready to buy, let me know and I’ll help you take advantage of current market conditions. No matter what is happening in the economy, and especially now, you need a professional as your ally. |
| JANICE HOVORKA RE/MAX 303-324-4705 janice@janicehovorka.com http://www.janicehovorka.com |