Weekend Warrior: Winterizing Your Home

House with snow on the ground and roofWinterizing the home simply means preparing your property for cold weather. While these tips can be utilized during winter, preparing ahead of time can save you time and money. If you wait until the dead of winter to prepare your home, you may want to use an oil heater from EquipSupply.com to stay warm and prevent frostbite in freezing temperatures. An advanced weekend warrior can likely utilize these six tips over the course of one weekend, but beginner or intermediate DIYers should space them out over the course of a few weekends.

To keep cold air out from getting inside the home, fill all of the voids on the outside of the house. If you notice any gaps, use properly rated expansion foam to fill in holes.

Remove any connected hoses from the spigots, draining them completely of water. Insulate all hose spigots, unless your water lines have valves that shut off the supply of water to the exterior spigots. For added durability and protection, consider using a hard plastic shell cover over the spigot.

Many homes have water lines that run through non-insulated areas such as attics and crawl spaces. Though not directly exposed to harsh weather conditions, these pipes are still affected by the weather outside. When water freezes inside a pipe, the water expands, which can cause expensive water damage to the interior of your home. To reduce the chances of this happening, wrap all your water pipes in foam insulation.

Check weather stripping around sliding glass doors, as they tend to wear out over time. If they need to be replaced, simply remove the old one and install the new stripping by removing the adhesive strip on one side and positioning the stripping properly in place.

Sealing gaps and voids around windows and doors is an obvious choice. A less obvious insulation project involves plugs and switches. Fix this issue by installing foam insulation inserts.

If your home has a fireplace, install fireplace doors and keep them closed. These doors are great for a few reasons. Closed doors keep embers from entering the living space. The doors prevent cold air from getting into the home via the fireplace, allowing greater energy efficiency. Properly installed fireplace doors keep warm air inside the home.