Fall Season Means It Is Time For Your Home To Be Winterized

| Tuesday, November 15, 2011
By Warren C Mahmood


If you know what spring cleaning means, you probably have some notion what it means to winterize your home. As soon as autumn arrives you need to inspect your home's readiness for the upcoming winter. In the course of fall it is actually easier to examine the outside of the home, since the foliage is dying away and you can more easily see if shrubs are attached to the house. Clean off roots and vines clinging to the siding, otherwise they may cause damage - even bricks are vulnerable.

Once you have finished your final watering, empty, roll up and store all the hose. The exterior faucets have to have the water turned off, and then permitted to drain dry. If you are done with your patio furniture for the year, clean it up then store it in a dry spot.

Any young trees that you've planted, you should protect them with mulch, especially if it is their first winter. To allow for extra rainfall, you should clear away any drainage ditches that you have.

Once the weather conditions starts to get colder, it is time to start thinking of fireplaces. Get your chimney swept in time, before the first cold spell, because that's typically when everyone wakes up and wants it done. If you use firewood, don't delay in finding someone and getting a good supply built up. When driving around rural areas, you might find local people who sell fire wood, without lots of advertising.

No matter if you use a fireplace in winter, you should check all of your smoke alarms to make sure they are working. The connections to the Christmas lights may become brittle and crack if you don't ever take them down, so check them for sufficient flexibility. And presently is the time to get the storm windows installed. You should assess if some of the weather-stripping has become dried out from the summer's heat and needs to be replaced.

Throughout the winter season, the windows remain closed most of the time, so make sure that the filtering system in your range hood are in good working order. Confirm that the pitch of the soil around your house will still allow water to flow away. Water draining into the basement and the platform can cause serious problems. To start with it may cause wet rot, which in turn could cause dry rot, which isn't something you want in your home anywhere. Make the effort of checking, at regular time intervals, that water is not seeping into your home.

It is apparently inevitable that water leaks come, and the most likely places are the roof, the gutter and down-spouts, and the inside plumbing. Set a priority to get any leaks you see fixed. Minimize a draft by safeguarding air-conditioning units, and consider wrapping exterior pipes, especially if the house is older. Your floor coverings may need to be shampooed to get rid of dust which in winter is readily noticed. Finish off by just cleaning the glass windows.




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