Is Your Home Ready For Winter Yet?
Is your home ready for winter yet? As summer is coming to a close and fall is descending upon us, you need to start thinking about whether your home is ready for the cold seasons that are coming. When summer comes around we adapt our homes to ensure that they are ready for the summer season, and it’s imperative that you are doing this for winter also.
The good news is that if you are someone who hasn’t done this before, we’re not just going to leave it at that and make you figure it out on your own. Instead, we’re going to be diving a little deeper into how you can make your home ready for winter, and then you can add anything else to the list if you want to. So, let’s give you a good starting point.
Check The Windows
The first thing that we’re going to look at are your windows. You need to be checking your windows before summer ends completely so that you know they are secure, they don’t have cracks in them, and that you don’t have any vulnerabilities. Even the tiniest of cracks can let the cold air swoop through your home, which is not what you need when you’re trying to keep yourselves warm.
If you’re not sure how to check your windows, or you’re not sure that you’re doing it right, see if someone else in the family, or a family friend will come and do this for you. That way, you get peace of mind that your windows are in good condition, and you don’t have to call someone in for a repair or replacement.
Check All The Doors
Now that you’ve checked all of the windows, you’re going to need to check all of the doors. This is just as important as checking your windows as draughts from the doors can be even more chilling than the windows, usually because the gaps are bigger.
When checking the doors, you need to make sure that the door shuts and locks correctly. Then, you need to make sure that the doors are secure and that there are no cracks or splinters that could cause you problems. If the door doesn’t shut properly, or if you know that there is a gap that is going to let the elements whip through, this needs to be sorted asap. The longer that you leave it, the longer you are risking your home when it starts to get cold.
Change The Curtains
We’re sure that when summer came around you swapped your curtains to ones that were more lightweight, to ones that let the sun come through the windows in the morning a little bit more. Now that winter is on its way, you need to swap back to those heavy, thick curtains that don’t do this. You want to keep your home as warm as possible, with these curtains helping to keep the cold out, and trap the warm air in at the same time. This makes rooms feel cozier, it makes the space generally nicer to be in during the winter, and helps to reduce the need to put the heating on for as long as possible.
Look At Your Heating System
A must-do for the winter season is to look at your heating system and make sure that it’s working properly. The last thing that you want is to go to turn on your heaters, only to find that they are not working, and you’re now left freezing cold in your home. Instead of letting this happen, you should be turning the heating on towards the end of summer/early fall to check that they are in full working order.
If something isn’t quite right, this gives you the time that you need to contact a heating engineer and get it sorted. They will be able to come and tell you what has gone wrong, fixing it before the freezing weather comes around. We do want to make you aware as well that sometimes frozen pipes cause the heating to not work, so it might be that if it’s in the dead of winter, this could be the problem.
Look At Your Garage Door
If you have a garage, you need to make sure that your door is in order. We talked about the doors of the home, but a lot of people forget about the garage door as it’s outside. This is a key part of the security of your home, and as well as this cold weather can sometimes damage the mechanisms. If you leave your garage door vulnerable, you’re likely to end up with a whole area of your home that’s being subjected to the elements, which you don’t need.
Check your garage door and see what it’s like. It might be a good idea to call in a professional garage door repair service and get them to fix the issue. If it’s severely broken, a replacement might be the best option.
Get Up On The Roof
Last but by no means least, you should be getting up on the roof and taking a look at it. Are the tiles all in the right places? Are any missing? Are there any gaps that could cause problems? Your roof is a massively important part of your home, and it needs to be taken care of as such. Just because you can’t see it easily, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be taking care of it to the best of your ability.
We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the different things that you should be doing to get your home ready for winter. We understand that it’s a lot of work, but it’s still better than having to sit there in the winter, freezing cold because you didn’t prepare for this the way that you should have. We wish you the very best of luck, and hope that you manage to stay warm and comfortable until the sun comes out again.
