Winter Preparations to Fortify Your Home for the Cold

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It is starting to get cooler so you need to make sure your home is ready for the colder weather. Getting in front of a situation is always better than trying to react to adversity. By being prepared ahead of time, you can ensure that you have the supplies you need, not only to survive but to comfortably make it through the winter.

Start now to make preparations so that you can fortify your home against the cold. By doing that, not only can you cut down your heating costs, but you can have your home ready to withstand the colder temperatures in the event that the heat goes out.

Draft Repair

Your home can have drafts that work against your heating system by allowing cold air in and letting the warm air escape. You want to make sure that you fix these drafts before the winter weather impacts your home.

The best way to fix drafts is by making sure you have good weather-stripping. Check each of the outer doors and all the windows of your home.

One of the main signs that you need weather stripping or to replace what you do have is to check to see if you feel a draft. If you feel air coming in from around the frame of your doors or around the windows, then air is getting in.

You might not be able to feel any air coming in, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not. You can hold a lit candle in front of each side, top, and bottom of your window. If the flame flickers, that’s a sign you have a draft. When glass panes on your windows or doors are foggy, that’s also a sign that they’re not properly sealed against the weather.

If your heating bills are suddenly higher than they have been before, that can be a sign that your home isn’t weather sealed. You can easily buy and put up weather-stripping yourself to protect against drafts and help keep your home warm for the winter weather events.

Check Your Fireplace

You want to be able to safely use your fireplace in the winter. But you can’t just light a fire once winter hits without having prepared ahead of time. Before you light the first fire, you need to have your chimney inspected.

An inspection can prevent a fire by making sure that there’s no residue in the chimney. By cleaning out the residue if there is any, you can make sure that your home is safe from this danger.

Getting your chimney inspected and cleaned out can also help make sure that any obstructions are cleared away. Birds and even wasps sometimes build nests in chimneys. Anything that causes a blockage in the chimney can be dangerous.

Smoke and CO Alarms

Ahead of the winter weather, make sure that the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are working. If you haven’t replaced your batteries before cold weather hits, then go ahead and do that. After you replace the batteries, perform an alarm test on each of the detectors that you have in your home.