WINTERIZE
YOUR HOME
21 Best Tips to Prepare your Home for Winter
For Homes in Climates with Freezing Winter Temperatures
You and your home need to be protected from cold winter temperatures. Follow these steps to protect your home.
- Clean gutters
- Close winter shut-offs for outdoor spigots
- Close storm windows
- Check your winter supplies
- Schedule your annual heating system tune-up
- Check radon monitoring
- Prepare Car Emergency Kit
- Address your fireplace
- Repair or Replace damaged weatherstripping around doors and windows
- Trim all dead and damaged branches
- Mulch your leaves with your current mower and fertilize your lawn for free!
- Check the foundation and basement walls of your home for termite tunnels
- Consider purchasing a roof rake
- Consider installing thermal shades or curtains
- Schedule free home energy audit
- Hunt for Coziness… and Money
- Assess your home’s plumbing to confirm no pipes are likely to freeze
- Weatherize outdoor equipment – lawnmower, clippers, outdoor hose
- Snow Blower Owners – Schedule an annual snow blower tune-up from a licensed professional
Clean Gutters
In cold temperatures, it is critical to allow water to quickly flow away from your home. If your gutters are blocked by leaves or bird nests, trapped water will freeze, accumulate over the winter, and possibly result in ice dams, damage, and leaks.
Do not worry if you are scared of heights (Me too!) Professional gutter cleaning usually costs between $50 and $150 depending on the size of your home and the cost of living in your area.
In some cold climates it may be necessary to install a heat cable in your gutters to stop ice from building up. If you notice your gutters overflowing with ice and icicles, contact a professional to assess. Learn more in this excellent article from The Spruce.
Close Winter Shut-Offs for Outdoor Spigots and Open Outdoor Spigot to Drain Pipe
Your outdoor spigots need to do three things before the weather drops below freezing at night.
- Remove all hoses and other attachments from outdoor spigots
- Close the winter shut-off valve
- Then open the outdoor spigot to drain the pipe to the outdoors
If not winterized, the supply pipe to tradition outdoor spigots (aka faucets or hosebibs) can freeze and rupture in the winter.
Fortunately, there is an additional shut-off valve inside your home (where it is warm). If you follow the three steps above your will be ready to water your garden in the spring without a problem.
Upgrade Option:
If this sounds like a pain in the neck, consider hiring a plumber to replace your traditional outdoor spigots with modern frost-proof fixtures that stop the water about 8 to 12 inches into your wall (where it is warm all year) and you will never have to remember to prep the outdoor water spigots for winter again.
To learn more about frost-proof spigots watch this:
Thank you to Ask This Old House for their excellent video “How to Install a Frost-Proof Hose Spigot”
Close Storm Windows
Storm windows are highly effective at reducing cold drafts and heat loss in the winter.
However if you were to drive around Boston, MA on a freezing February afternoon, you would see that many homeowners forget to close their storm windows for the winter.
Don’t suffer in a cold, drafty house. If you have storm windows installed, close them now. You will save money of heating and keep cozier all winter long.
Check Your Winter Supplies
Check the condition of your Snow Shovels and Ice Scrapers.
Purchase Deicing Salt/Sand for sprinkling on your steps, sidewalks and driveway to protect people from slip and fall accidents on your property
Schedule your Annual Heating System Tune-Up with a Licensed Professional
Hire a licensed professional to perform a tune-up on your heating system.
Furnace Owners – Replace your furnace filter every three months of use. The filter size is printed on the edge of the existing filter
Ask your heating professional to give you a list of all maintenance tasks you should perform between annual tune-ups
Continuous radon monitoring device
Check Radon Levels
The American Cancer Society reports that radon gas is the second highest cause of lung cancer, second only to smoking. And it might be in your home right now.
Radon is a colorless, odorless, radioactive gas. It forms naturally from the decay (breaking down) of radioactive elements (such as uranium) which are found in different amounts in soil and rock throughout the world.
Not to worry! Reasonably prices radon monitors are available and if you have radon in your home, there are effective strategies to reduce it to safe levels.
The American Cancer Society and the EPA recommends homes be fixed if the radon level is 4 pCi/L (picocuries per liter) or more. Because there is no known safe level of exposure to radon, EPA also recommends that Americans consider fixing their home for radon levels above 2 pCi/L.
The radon levels in your home will fluctuate throughout the year depending on open windows and whether it is the heating or cooling season.
Continuous radon monitoring device
Indoor portion of
subslab depressurization system
Home Hero recommends purchasing a continuous radon monitoring device as shown above and checking it at least twice a year. Ideally, about a month after turning on your heating system and a month after turning on your cooling system (or midsummer for homes without cooling).
If your home has radon levels above the recommended thresholds, the EPA recommends a professionally installed radon mitigation system, such as “active subslab depressurization”.
Learn more in this excellent EPA guide – Consumer’s Guide to Radon Reduction – How to Fix Your Home
Prepare Car Emergency Kit
A car breakdown in spring or autumn is an inconvenience. A car breakdown in the winter can be deadly.
Prepare a Car Emergency Kit so you are ready for anything. The kit should include:
- Jumper Cables
- Emergency Shovel
- Road Flares
- Flashlights
- First Aid Kit
- Energy Bars
- Radio – crank powered is ideal
- Blankets
- Multi-tool knife such as Swiss Army or Leatherman
- Water in a freeze-resilient container such as a half-full water bladder or half-full collapsible water bottle stored horizontally
Now is a great time to install your winter tires, if you swap your tires seasonally.
Don’t forget to top off your windshield wiper fluid with low-temperature wiper fluid. Consider storing the rest of the wiper fluid in your trunk if you can store the bottle upright.
Address Your Fireplace
A fireplace can create a charming focal point for your living room. However it may also be causing cold drafts and heat loss.
If you will use the fireplace this winter season, schedule your annual chimney cleaning and inspection to reduce the risk of chimney fires and confirm proper drafting.
If you will not use your fireplace this winter, consider installing a chimney balloon or plug to stop drafts. Even with the flue damper closed, an unending stream of cold outdoor air may be pouring through those loose metal joints. You might be surprised how much more comfortable your living room is with just this one change.
Repair or Replace Damaged Weatherstripping around Doors and Windows
Doors and Windows account for most of the drafts you feel on cold winter days. Save heat and money while making your home cozier by repairing and replacing weatherstripping around doors and windows.
Learn more in these two videos:
In the video above, Tom Silva installs the optimal weatherstripping device at the bottom of the door, however there are many Do-It-Yourself options, that do not require removing the door, available at your local home improvement store.
Trim Dead Branches
Each year before AND after winter, you want to inspect the trees around your home for dead or damaged branches.
These dead and damaged branches are likely to be torn off when loaded with snow or ice, or even just strong winds.
This can be dangerous for any person or furniture in it’s path, and can also make the tree susceptible to rot and decay. A clean cut, that spares the branch “collar”, will protect your tree (as well as your wallet from the cost of tree removal).
Learn the best way to prune branches off trees from This Old House expert, Roger Cook.
Thank you to Ask This Old House for their excellent video “Pruning Trees with the Three Cut Method”
Mulch Your Lawn with your Mower
and Fertilize Your Lawn For Free!!!
Save yourself from blistered palms and a sore back while fertilizing your lawn for free!!
Did you know that leaves broken down to dime-size or smaller are an excellent fertilizer for your lawn and garden? Did you know that most mowers will effectively mulch if you remove the bag and let the spring-loaded door shut?
Once the leaves start falling, mulch the leaves with your mower every week or two until all the leaves are down for the season.
Lawn experts recommend lowering your mower one notch for the final mow of the season.
Learn more in this excellent article from Bob Vila “Mulching Leaves: Why Mowing Leaves is Better Than Raking Them”
Check Outside Perimeter of Your Home For Termite Tunnels
You might think it is a dirt trail or just some wind-blown dirt on your foundation, but it is actually a tunnel filled with termites! This tunnels allow termites to travel from the soil up into the framing of your home.
These tunnels can also be visible on your interior basement walls.
The size and color of the tunnels may vary depending on termite type and the soil type in your area.
If you see any tunnels contact a termite exterminator specialist immediately to stop the termites from turning the wood framing of your home into effectively cardboard (see below).
Consider Purchasing a Roof Rake
If you live in an area with high snow fall, or if your home has ever had ice dams, consider purchasing a roof rake.
A roof rake allows you to rake off bottom 4 to 6 feet of snow along the bottom edge of your roof.
Ice dams are caused when warm air, trapped in your attic, melts the snow on your roof. The water then flows down your roof to the roof edge and refreezes. This ice builds up and becomes an ice dam, which can result in water dripping into you attic and upper floor.
A roof rake can manage this issue until you are able to adequately air seal and insulate your attic, as well as increase attic ventilation so warm air can escape. If you might need one, buy it now. If you wait until this winter’s “Snowpocalypse”, they will all be sold out.
Learn more in this excellent video and associated article, How to Get Rid of Ice Dams, from This Old House.
Consider installing thermal shades or curtains.
Homes with historic windows, consider interior window storms.
In most homes, your windows are your weakest link; stopping you from having the cozy, comfortable home we all want.
If you still feel drafts on just “coldness” after sealing your windows in the step above. It may be time to consider more intensive measures.
Alternatively, you might consider double-layer honeycomb curtains (not an affiliate) that fit inside the window opening and will not conflict with surrounding furniture.
If you close your curtains nightly, you might consider heavy insulating curtains.
The most robust option, is to consider removable interior storm windows. Particularly, if you have historic or unusual size windows. There are companies (not an affiliate) that will custom-make interior storms to fit your exact windows. These can have the additional benefit of reducing outdoor sound as well. Another option for the intrepid DIYer, you can follow these directions, from the kind people at North Quabbin Energy (not an affiliate), to make your own removable interior storm windows inexpensively.
Schedule Free Home Energy Audit from your utility or state agency, if available
Many states have created weatherization program delivered by your utility or a state agency.
Find out if a state-funded weatherization program is available in your region. If it is, schedule your home energy audit. The auditor will identify the most cost-effective weatherization measures for your home.
If you choose to install any of these weatherization measures, you may only need to pay a fraction of the cost, the rest paid by the weatherization program incentives and rebates.
Hunt for Coziness... and Money
Have you heard the old saying “All you need for a cozy home is a caulk gun and a gleam in your eye.”
Many homeowners believe that their home is drafty due to inadequate insulation.
Actually, most homes are drafty due to cracks and gaps in the exterior that allow cold air to infiltrate your lower floors and heated air to escape your upper floors. This is caused by “the stack effect.“
On an extra cold day, turn up the heat, grab your family members and your sense of adventure. Embark on the search for…. “The Coziness Killers” in your home. You will focus your search in your lowest floor and your highest floor in your home. Sealing up your home has the added benefit of blocking the paths for insects and pests to enter your home.
You will need the following supplies:
- A box of incense sticks
- Matches to light incense sticks
- A caulk gun – types of caulk coming soon….
Now you and your family members tour the perimeter of your basement, each armed with a smoking incense stick. Slowly move your incense stick around any area you think might be leaking air. When you find a leak, you will see the incense smoke blowing in toward the center of the house in your basement and out through the air leak in your top floor. If there is fiberglass insulation covering the crack, the fiberglass will probably look dirty. This is caused by the fiberglass insulation filtering out dust as the continuous stream of cold air passes through.
Some leaks may be too big to solve with just some caulk, such as an unsealed chimney or recessed “can” lights in ceiling of your top floor (ie the attic floor), but you will get a good sense of where heated air is escaping and cold air is coming in. Then you can investigate your options, such as the chimney plug and the removable interior storm windows mentioned earlier.
Theoretically, if you were able to seal all the leaks in your home, eventually you would need to add mechanical ventilation to supply fresh air to your home, but that level of air sealing is likely impossible in an existing home without significant renovation.
Eliminating air leaks in an existing building can be a lengthy process, however in each stage of improvement you will be surprised at how much more comfortable and cozy you feel, and you’ll save money on your heating bill at the same time.
Check for pipes in unheated attic, garage, basement, crawlspace, or exterior wall
While you are looking around on your “cozy hunt” (above) also look for pipes that may be susceptible to freezing during a cold snap.
Look for insulated pipes in unheated attic, garage, basement, crawlspace, or exterior wall. All these pipes can be protected by adding ample insulation. Insulation is relatively cheap, especially compared to repairing water damage, so buy the thickest insulation you can.
If there are some pipes that you suspect might freeze, even with insulation (it’s not magic after all), you can install a heat trace cable inside the insulation, alongside the problem pipe. Your insulation type should be rated for the temperature of the heat trace cable. Then at particularly cold times, you turn the heat trace cable on. You could even plug the heat trace cable into a timer that will heat the pipes for 5 minutes, every 20 minutes depending on your climate. This set-up would be best performed by a professional who can confirm all the components are compatible.
When a cold snap is coming, remember to open the lower cabinet doors on any sinks located on the exterior walls of your home. You can even leave a teeny-tiny drip of water flowing out of susceptible fixtures on the especially cold night. However remember to turn the faucets back off the next day, otherwise your water (or electric for well-water homes) costs will soar.
If traveling in the winter, consider closing your water main shut-off and draining your pipes by opening the lowest faucet and flushing all the toilets in your home. This will minimize damage if your home loses power or heat while you are traveling. Remember to keep your home somewhat heated, because there is water trapped in your appliances, fixtures, pipe bends, drains, etc.. that can freeze, expand, and burst pipes.
Learn how to insulate your pipes from This Old House’s, Richard Trethewey, in this video
Thank you to This Old House for their excellent video “How to Prevent Frozen Pipes”
Winterize Lawn Mower and Yard Equipment
Prepare your yard equipment for winter.
Make sure all equipment is clean and dry. Lubricate shears and clippers. Store in dry place for the winter.
Either run your gas lawn mower dry or add fuel stabilizer, if recommended by manufacturer.
Learn more in This Old House video
Thank you to Ask This Old House for their excellent video “How to Install a Frost-Proof Hose Spigot”
In Development
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