Winter-Proofing The Home

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It’s that glorious time of year when a chill starts to hit the air. Maybe it’s time to light the fireplace, make some soup, and put a football game on TV.

With summer in the rearview mirror, it’s time to fully embrace fall – especially before winter hits, and that chill in the air can become outright frigid.

While it’s a great time to enjoy the change of season, it’s also a good idea to start looking at ways of winter-proofing your home or that of a loved one for when that cold weather does hit. Along with the impact on your comfort, it can also help save money on your energy bills for you and/or them, and be a safety concern.  

In this blog, here are a few things to consider to help keep your home warm and safe during the winter months.

Check The Heat

You’re going to need your furnace during the winter, so now’s the perfect time to have someone come out and inspect it.

When those cold snaps hit, the heating companies get overextended trying to respond to, and visit, all the people calling them whose heat has gone out. Get a jump start by having your system inspected now, and perhaps they can find and/or repair issues they find now to help reduce the chance of the system going out at the worst time.

They can also check the ducts while they’re here, and you should have new air filters on hand as well.

Avoid The Draft

Ideally, your windows exist to keep the elements out of your home, but with time, they can become drafty. When that happens, not only does it allow cold air into your home, but it also increases your energy bill by forcing the furnace to come on more often.

Check to see if the seals surrounding the windows are damaged or cracked, and apply weather stripping if you’re able (or hire an expert if it’s not your forte).

Inspect The Exterior

There are a few things we recommend considering to help keep your home safe during the winter months:

  • Trim tree branches: If you’re able, cut or trim and dead tree branches, or branches that could pose a hazard to your home if they freeze and fall off the tree.
  • Clean the gutters: If you go into the winter season with your gutters filled with leaves or debris, they can freeze and cause water backups that seep into the home.
  • Buy outdoor faucet covers: For just a couple dollars, you can buy outdoor faucet covers that can save you thousands by preventing frozen pipes. Affix these to any outdoor faucets prior to freezing weather.

With the tree branches and gutters, for safety purposes, it’s a good idea to hire a professional to help.

Fill The Fridge

When the weather gets rough and the roads are icy, you don’t want to find yourself, or a loved one, driving through dangerous conditions because the fridge is empty.

Try to keep enough food on hand in your home to last at least a week should conditions make it difficult, or even impossible, to get out and go to the store.

Keep lots of non-perishable items like soup and pasta handy. If there are pets in the home, make sure you’ve stocked up for them as well.

And if you’re running low on medications, don’t wait to get prescriptions refilled. Like with food, try to make sure you have enough to get you through a week.

Winter Item Checklist

Along with the advice listed above, here is a checklist of items to have on hand in case of winter weather. Now’s as good a time as any to buy or order these, before stores run out during the time of year you’ll need them:

  • Winter jacket, hat, gloves and boots
  • Extra blankets
  • Space heater (although don’t sleep with it on)
  • Snow shovel
  • Kitty litter or sidewalk de-icer
  • Batteries
  • Flashlight
  • First aid kit

Prestige Is Here To Help

If that seems like a long list of things to do, at Prestige, we handle those details for you. Our teams are always prepared for winter weather and are sure to keep our communities safe and warm, with detailed plans in case of emergencies.

If you’d like to leave the winterizing to someone else, it might be time to consider life here at Prestige.

Contact the community nearest you to learn more about how they prepare for the winter weather, and contact us to schedule a visit!