How to Winterize your Home

Throughout the course of the year, different seasons require different types of home maintenance. You want your house to remain in the best possible shape, especially in winters. Winters is perhaps one of the most dangerous seasons that tends to make your house susceptible to damages the most. The freezing temperatures and the increased moisture need to be controlled. In order to do that, you need to take preventative measures like winterizing your house. Here is how you can do that:

1. Check the furnace

You want to ensure that you have your furnace checked by a heating, ventilation, air conditioning expert. They will ensure that the ducts of the furnace are cleaned. If you need a heating system installed, they will be able to do that for you as well.

2. Check the fireplace

Another heating system within homes is the fireplace. Usually, they have a chimney on top which leads the hot, polluted air, out of the house. You will need to get the chimney cleaned before deciding to use to fireplace. Additionally, it can become quite an attractive place for birds, rodents and other animals in the winter. Thus, you want to ensure that you take steps to prevent them from settling in.

3. Check the frame of the house

The most important thing to do is to perhaps check the structure of the house as well as its features. You want to ensure that the windows, door and walls aren’t worn out and don’t have holes and cracks either. This will help keep your house insulated –making sure that the heating systems are not going to waste.

4. Check the drainage

One of the most harmful things in winters is when the drainage systems freeze. The frozen water can lead to breaks in pipes, clogged drains and backflow of water. Additionally, they also cause structural damage to the house. Get your gutters regularly cleaned, replace the roof tiles, and place thick gauged on the drains so that there is no accumulation of garbage or leaves.

5. Prep your landscape

Throughout the winter, many storms can cause havoc on the outside of your house –the deck, the porch, ground and the like. The one thing that you must do is to ensure that your trees are trimmed in such a manner that they do not pose any danger. They should be away from electrical cables and shortened so that they do not fall and cause property damage.

6. Install smoke detectors

You want to ensure that you are as safe as possible when inside your house –especially considering the different types of heating systems that are available for use in the market today. You should take precautions in the form of smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors so that you can protect yourself against fires and gas leakages. Make sure you test them once as you install them in to the house. Even buying an extinguisher would be a good precaution to take.