Winter is just around the corner, which means that you should winterize your home as soon as possible. Read ahead to find out why this home improvement is crucial and how you can get it done.
Three Reasons to Winterize:
Saving Money on Energy Bills
Winter can be an expensive time of year — and this isn’t because of holiday spending. You spend a lot of money on energy bills alone. Winterizing your home will keep the cold air outside where it belongs, meaning that you don’t have to spend a ton to maintain a comfortable indoor temperature.
Prevent Expensive Problems in the Winter
Winterizing helps you prepare your home features for the rough seasonal weather. Without it, you could find yourself dealing with a disaster. You don’t want to deal with burst water pipes or a broken-down furnace during the coldest time of the year.
Avoid Expensive Repairs in the Spring
Leaving certain household features to weather the ice and snow unprotected will leave you with a lot of problems to fix once everything melts. If you want to keep your spring maintenance list short, you should do some winterizing beforehand.
How to Get Started:
Organize your household budget and savings to see how much you can dedicate to this project. If you’re worried that these home improvements will push you past your limit, you may want to apply for a personal line of credit as a back-up plan. Click here if you’re wondering how does a personal line of credit work and how you can apply for one online.
A line of credit is meant to help you handle emergency costs when your savings won’t cut it. So, you don’t have to panic if you need to cover the costs of a plumbing repair or roofing fix.
The next thing you should do is take a look at this winterizing to-do list to see what chores you need to finish by the time the snow falls.
What You Should Do to Winterize Your Home:
- Insulate your indoor water pipes. Pipes that are close to uninsulated exterior walls are more likely to freeze during the winter.
- Remove your garden hose from the spigot and store it in a safe place.
- Drain the outdoor faucets and then use outdoor faucet covers to protect them from the cold.
- Add insulation to your attic, basement and garage walls.
- Seal the windows with caulking and doors with weatherstripping.
- Cover your A/C unit.
- Have your furnace inspected. These are signs that your furnace is failing and needs to get replaced before the weather gets too cold.
- Replace your disposable furnace filter. If you have a built-in filter, clean it.
- Have your water heater inspected. If it’s in good condition, insulate it. If it needs an upgrade, make the replacement and then insulate it.
- Switch the direction of your ceiling fans. Find out why reversing the direction of your ceiling fans can help make your rooms more comfortable during the winter.
There’s no time to waste. Get started on these chores right away before the temperatures drop. When you’re done, you’ll be happy that your house is really comfortable and that your energy costs are really low.
Photo by Tracy Adams on Unsplash
winter is coming 😀