Your home is the most important possession you have. Not only is it likely the biggest financial investment you’ll ever make, but it’s also where you and your family live. Unfortunately, it seems like the weather outside sometimes conspires against your home. In the summer, the heat can take its toll on your house and yard, but it’s in the colder months that your home is really at risk. Falling leaves in autumn and dire cold in winter can cause all kinds of problems to your house, and by extension, to your family.
That’s why Building Our House shares some insights on how you save later by doing some work now to prepare your home for the fall and winter months.
Working Now Saves Later
With autumn here, you are probably looking forward to the season. Your favorite TV shows have started up again, football is on, and you might be in the mood to shop for a new, cozy sweater for when temperatures really cool down. That means you will be tempted to avoid home maintenance this fall.
That’s a bad idea, though. Doing some maintenance now can protect the value of your home. Regular maintenance also keeps things from breaking, meaning you won’t need to spend money on preventable, costly repairs.
Keeping Your Home Safe
There’s also another reason for doing some end-of-summer work now: it can help make your home safer during the colder months. Good Housekeeping has a list of home disasters that can happen in winter:
- Space heaters can really make a room feel cozy, but you have to be very careful about them. They can start fires if not attended, and if yours burns fuel, it can create toxic fumes without you realizing it.
- If your gutters are blocked thanks to falling leaves and twigs, spring rains can leak into your roof and walls. This can create leaks in the drywall, but worse, it can lead to mold in the walls.
- Depending on how cold it gets in your region, you might have to worry about pipes freezing when the weather gets very cold.
You should also think about the air quality in your home during the winter. You’ll likely be spending more time indoors than during warmer times of the year, and winter is a time when indoor air quality drops. Unfortunately, a drop in air quality can also aggravate painful eczema, though long-term solutions are possible in terms of treatment.
If you plan on using your fireplace, you should look into an air purifier that will remove smoke and other particles in the air, which tend to be concentrated in homes that are closed up due to cold weather. Similarly, you also need to change all the air filters in your home, including the ones in your furnace. Over time, dirt and hair build up on the filters. This reduces the amount of warm air reaching your rooms, but these can also be a fire hazard. If you tend to forget when you need to change them, you can always set a reminder on your favorite smart speaker; just ask Alexa (or whatever assistant you use) to remind you to change the filters in three months.
Lastly, make sure you change all the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. These should be replaced every few months anyway, but with space heaters and furnaces running, the risk of fire is higher in the colder months.
Prevent Cold Damage This Winter
As you keep your home warm, that heat typically doesn’t get inside your walls. That’s unfortunate – and potentially dangerous – since this is where your pipes are found. As mentioned earlier, freezing pipes can break as the water turns to ice and expands. To help prevent that, make sure you have insulation in the attic, basement, and any crawl spaces. If you have exposed pipes, insulate them as well.
Along the same lines, hire an HVAC professional to inspect and clean your furnace. You certainly do not want it to break down right in the middle of winter, as losing heat for a while can lead to more problems than just frozen pipes.
Do Some Maintenance Today
It might not sound exciting to spend early fall taking care of your home, but doing so now can reap many rewards later on. Besides, don’t you want to have a warm, cozy – and safe – home this winter?
We created the Building Our House blog because we wanted to document the whole process; from land to home, as best as we could. Documenting the process will help us find our mistakes, learn from them and move on to the next milestone. It will also create a catalog of bittersweet memories that we can always look back to and cherish those moments. If you have questions, please contact us today!
Image Source: Pixabay
