It’s important to prep your home for the colder temperatures. And I think the easiest way is to start at the bottom and move up.
Outside
First go outside and disconnect all the hoses attached to your home. That’s a major point of breakage during winter. Once you disconnect, make sure you drain all the water. Take a look at where each pipe enters the home and shut off the valve inside your house.
Basement
While you’re shutting off valves in the basement, take a look at your joist bays. Ensure that insulation has been put along the outside of your wall where your joist bay sits on top of your basement wall. That’s a great area to cut down on cold air coming into your home and that’ll keep your basement warmer in the cold weather.
While you’re down there, make sure all windows that you have in the basement are closed for winterization and safety reasons. Also make sure that you don’t have any holes between pipes that lead to the exterior of your home. Check the plumbing pipes, dryer vents and any other vent that leads outside.
Upstairs
Now that we’re out of the basement and onto your first floor, take a look at any exterior door that lead outside. Make sure there’s a rubber piece that goes around the door. It needs to create a tight seal between inside and outside to cut down on drafts.
Check out your windows to make sure the seals are in good shape. And I always recommended locking the windows, which creates a stronger seal to keep heat and cold weather out.
Attic
Head up into your attic space next to ensure that you have proper insulation. One of the most common leakage areas is your attic door. There are attic caps that can go on top of your attic door to keep heat in your home.
Lastly, you want to check high hats and recessed lights. It’s always a good idea to make sure the recessed lights in your home can have insulation around them or that there are caps that go on top. Call an electrician to come out and evaluate to make sure that all recessed lights are properly installed and not leaking heat into the attic.
If all of this sounds like a little too much, just give us a call at MoreVent and we will come out to do a proper inspection. We’ll make sure your home is ready for cold temperatures.