Prepare Your Home For Winter
With wet and windy weather beginning to set in and the leaves changing colours, Autumn is with us once again. It’s the perfect time to do a little home health check and prepare your home for Winter.
Here’s our quick checklist of things you’ll want to do over the next couple of weeks.
1. Get a Heating Service
The one thing you don’t want to worry about over the winter months is whether your heating is going to break down. Autumn is a busy time for plumbers and heating specialists and that’s because it’s the best time for homeowners to have their systems checked out.
Give your existing heating a service and get your radiators checked out at the same time. If you have an old boiler, you might like to think about upgrading to a more energy-efficient model which will save you money on heating bills in the long term.
2. Update Your Loft Insulation
If you don’t get up into the attic much, you can prepare your home for Winter by having a quick look at the insulation you have there. Most heat loss in modern homes is through the roof and adding a little extra insulation can make a big difference to your overall level of comfort as the nights draw in and get colder.
This is a job you can do yourself quite easily. The recommended depth of glass or mineral wool insulation is between 250 and 275 mm. If your current insulation is less than this, it’s time to update.
3. Check Door and Window Seals
When you are about to prepare your home for winter, one area that can cause significant heat loss are the seals around your doors and windows. If you have fairly old fixtures, these can degrade and harden over time.
The easiest way to check these is simply to walk around the house and put your hand up to the window frame and see if you can feel any air movement. Adding a new seal will quickly stop any chilly winter draughts.
5. Lag and Protect Pipes
A burst pipe is not only inconvenient, it’s going to cost you money to repair. You should check all external piping to make sure that any lagging is in good condition. Adding a little extra can save you a lot of heartache, especially once it gets close to Christmas. All good ways to prepare your home for Winter.
6. Check Exterior Walls
Damage to exterior walls can get worse over winter. Water may well get into cracks and gaps, freeze and then cause greater damage. It’s a good idea to have a walk around your property and check where there are areas that need to be repaired, before the cold weather sets in.
7. Keep an Eye on Your Guttering
One area that often gets ignored when preparing for winter is the guttering. Once the leaves start falling, all sorts of debris can end up in your gutters, especially if the weather is fairly stormy.
Blocked gutters cause other problems and a little bit of preventative maintenance goes a long way to making sure there are no nasty surprises further down the line.
Once the leaves have fallen, we think it’s a good idea to top off your Autumn home health checks by having the gutters checked and cleaned. The problem most people find is that getting up and down a ladder can be a little challenging.
That’s why it’s a good idea to have your gutter cleaned professionally. ProClean are a gutter cleaning and repairs service that can help keep your roof area in tip-top condition. We operate across the south of England including Cornwall, Buckinghamshire, Kent and Cambridgeshire.