Perform winter maintenance and avoid costly repairs.
Winterize Your Home
Winter is almost here (just a few more days). For many this is time to hunker down and stay inside where it’s warm and cozy. But if you ignore a few maintenance items, these can cause a significant hit to your savings account. So make sure that you take care of your winter business.
Winterize the pipes and outdoor spigots
You probably realize that when water freezes, it expands. If water is in a closed pipe and it freezes, the pipe will probably burst. And that will be an expensive mess to correct. But many newer homes come with the frost free spigots. These have the outlet on the exterior of the home, but the actual shutoff is inside the heated envelope of the home. And these work fine – IF – you remember to remove the hose. If not, the water has no place to go and will freeze and burst something.
If you have a crawl space, and water pipes run through the crawl space, they may be in danger of freezing. You can insulate the pipes which may work. You can also wrap them in heat tape, which uses electricity to keep the pipes warm enough to not freeze.
Clean Your Gutters
Make sure the gutters are clean and allow water to flow. If the water from a snow melt cannot flow out and away, it will freeze at night. This can pull the gutters off the house or may possibly lift part of the roof off. This is known as ice damming.
Inspect the furnace
It’s a good idea to have a professional inspect the furnace for proper operation and venting. And replace the carbon monoxide batteries at the same time.
Check the dryer exhaust
Make sure there is no lint backup in the vent pipe, and that the outdoor exhaust location is free of obstacles. Lint in the line is a possible cause of house fires.
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