Prepare Your Home For Winter

Prepare Your Home For Winter 

Preparing our home for winter is an annual thing here in the months of October and November before we get the freezing weather.  We have fairly mild temperatures in the Portland Metro Area, but we also get a couple of hard freezes every winter, lots of rain and some wind.  Taking the steps to winterize your home is necessary if you do not want frozen pipes, and other problems that may cause your heat bill to rise or other things like water leakage.

Here are a few tips I gathered from the Better Homes and Gardens website to help you along.

1. If you have a fireplace and it is wood, think about converting it to gas.  Wood burning fireplaces lose more energy than they produce.
2. If you have a wood burning fireplace and plan on keeping it that way, have the chimney inspected and cleaned before winter
3. If you have ceiling fans and it allows you to reverse the direction of the fan, do so,  as warm air rises and the clockwise rotation of the blades should force the warm air down for maximum benefit.
4. Wash the windows inside and out.  Gives you sparkling windows that let in plenty of light on the darker and grayer days ahead.
5. Rearrange your furniture and give your home a new cozier winter feel.
6. Make your windows and doors airtight so air does not leak out losing heat.
7. If you don't have storm windows and can afford them install them to reduce air leakage year-round.
8. Clean your gutters and flush with water.  When winter rains come the water will back up under the roof when too full with no place to go.
9. Check smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors.
10. There can be air leakage through electrical outlets and there is an easy fix.  There are outlet gaskets or insulation gaskets that you can put on the switch-plates, you can get them at the hardward store.
    
11. Make sure to have your furnace inspected so it functions properly and ready for heavier use with winter approaching.
12. Plug Hidden Leaks, if you have pipes that have gaps around the pipes fill them with an insulating foam sealant.
13. Protect your pipes from freezing.  There are foam tubes with a slit on one side and you can cut them to any length.  Available at hardware stores.
14. Check and see if you have enough insulation.

These are recommendations or ideas and not all will apply, but for us the biggest things are the gutters, the pipes, draining the irrigation system (which is required by our city), covering the outside faucets with insulation so no freezing occurs.  I know there is more especially if you are in snow zones which we are not.  My motto........Be as prepared as you are able.