Your home is your sanctuary; it’s where you feel safest and where you feel most comfortable. It gives you a lot. So you should give something back, and make sure that, as winter starts to draw closer, you have made your home completely ready. Not only will this keep your property safe and secure, but you’ll be more comfortable too, so it benefits everyone.
What you do to prepare your property for winter is going to depend somewhat on your budget, your time, where you live, and what kind of property you live in. Yet there are some things that pretty much everyone should be able to do, and we’ve listed some of them below.
Check Your Heating System
The last thing you are going to want when winter comes in and the temperature drops is to find your heating system isn’t working as well as it should, or at all. Not only would you become very cold in your own home, but you would need to have the system repaired as an emergency measure, and this always costs much more than regular repairs and maintenance would.
Before you need to use it, check that the heating turns on, gets warm enough, and turns off again. Make sure the thermostat is accurate too, or you might be spending more on your heating bills than you need to. If there is a problem, now is the time to discover it so you can have the repairs carried out before you need to turn the heating on full time.
Check For Pests
As the temperature lowers, you might find that various pests make their way into your warm, cozy home to stay for the winter. They could be in the basement, the attic, or even in the walls. Even if you don’t mind the idea of sharing your home with rats and other rodents, the fact is they can cause a lot of damage to your property and by the time spring comes, you might have many repairs to make. At the very least, it’s unhygienic to have rodents in your home, especially if you have children.
Check around for signs of pests and if you see any (such as droppings, chewed furniture, or nests) call in a pest control expert to rid your home of those unwanted visitors.
Check Your Gutters
Gutters are easy to forget about. Most of the time they don’t need to be looked at at all, and they simply do their job, taking water away from the roof and depositing it safely to the ground where it can do no harm.
If, however, those gutters are full of leaves and debris – as happens a lot in fall and the start of winter – the water won’t be taken straight to the ground. Instead, it can easily overflow and damage the side of your property. Or it can stay in the gutter and grow stagnant or freeze, both of which will damage your pipework. To get ready for winter, check your gutters and clear them out before there is a big problem.
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