Daily Home Renovation Tips

So, I thought I would provide the list of items I did in advance of winter in case some of them apply to you and you have not yet done same. Here, I am not referring to energy conservation related home winterizing tips. This are simple home maintenance as well as some of which are money saving tasks which should be done to avoid potential problems caused by winter’s cold temperatures.

These items are provided in no particular order:

1. Turn off the taps inside the house leading to the outdoor taps. Forgetting to do this can cause the water in your home’s pipes to freeze and burst.

Which way to turn the taps? Usually turning them clock wise will close the pipe. However, if not sure, try this. There is more room between the pipe and the tap when it is open, while the tap is closer to the pipe when it is closed. So, here is a picture of the tap open.

Compare it now to the following picture of the water tap closed. See how much closer the tap is to the pipe?

2. Remove garden hoses from the outdoor faucets and bring them inside. Leaving them outside in the winter will cause the water in the hoses to freeze and likely cause sufficient damage to require you to spend money and buy new garden hoses next spring. If you cannot bring them inside (e.g. basement), then be sure to empty any water within the hose and still disconnect it from the faucet.

3. Change the batteries on your home’s smoke / fire detectors and carbon dioxide detectors, if applicable.

4. Check and change if needed the air filter on your furnace.

5. Turn on your solar air heater, if you have one. Solar air heaters can be good energy conservation devices to reduce the amount of non-renewable resources such as natural gas and home heating oil consumed in the winter to heat a home.

6. Check the downspouts from your gutters and make sure that they are clear of leaves and any other debris. Failure to do this can lead to ice dams forming in the winter and spring which can result in water from melting snow and ice on your roofs to back up into your attic. I know I don’t want to go through any more water leaks in our dining room caused by ice dams in our gutters like we did two years ago.

7. Check that the grass near the downspouts from your gutters are neatly trimmed to not cause the above mentioned ice dams.

8. If you use any outdoor Christmas lights which need to be placed in the ground, get them in the ground now before it freezes. We use some outdoor solar Christmas lights to save on electricity costs. But even if you don’t, once the temperatures go below freezing for good, it is almost impossible to put the Christmas lights’ stakes in the ground thereafter without a lot of effort.

What maintenance tasks do you do to get your home ready for the winter?