Get Your Home Ready for Winter Cold and Storms (Part 1: Inside)

11/17/2020 (Permalink)

Winterizing your home will pay off in a reduced chance of damage from storms and cold weather. Here's what to do inside your house.

With winter just around the corner, now is an ideal time to prepare your house, both inside and out, to withstand the damage that cold weather and winter storms can cause. Let’s first look at the steps you can take inside your home to emerge damage-free from the winter storm season.

Inspect and Evaluate

Start by taking a good look at your current situation. That’ll tell you if you need to do repairs to any of your systems.

• Furnace: No one wants to wake up to a cold-as-a-stone furnace that won’t start. Likewise, you want to avoid a malfunctioning furnace that can emit deadly carbon monoxide. Hire a pro to do an annual inspection before the heating season and make any indicated repairs. Every month, replace your HVAC filters.
• Insulation: A poorly-insulated attic is a primary cause of damaging ice dams. Check the insulation in your attic and basement or crawlspace to keep the warm air where you want it: in your living space.
• Fireplace: Have your chimney cleaned and inspected each year to check for damage or built-up debris that could start a fire.
• Energy use: Consider asking your local utility company to do an energy assessment to find where your hot air is leaking out. The utility company may perform a number of fixes to give you immediate improvement, and they’ll recommend bigger improvements, too.

Add Barriers to Keep the Cold Out

Keeping your house warm in winter often means keeping the warm air inside your house. Before the cold weather really hits, do these tasks to keep the heat inside your home.

• Seal leaks: Use insulating foam to seal areas around plumbing vents, windows, your attic hatch and the perimeter of recessed lights. Apply weather stripping around doors.
• Seal windows: Apply plastic-film sheet kits to your windows to add an extra layer of insulation while sealing up gaps around the window frame.
• Insulate pipes: Technically, warm air doesn’t leak from your pipes, but if your pipes aren’t insulated sufficiently, you may have an enormous problem during a cold snap: frozen and burst pipes. The idea is to keep your pipes warm enough to prevent them from freezing. During a cold spell, you may also need to run taps at a drip and keep cabinet doors open to prevent freezing.

Read part 2 of this article for information on how to prepare the exterior of your home to withstand damage from winter cold and storms.

We’re Here for You

The team at SERVPRO of West Hartford has specialized training and experience in natural disaster and storm damage cleanup, water damage remediation, fire restoration services and chemical cleanup. Call SERVPRO of West Hartford (860.206.6141) any time.

If your home or business suffers damage from a storm or other natural disaster, call SERVPRO of West Hartford today at 860.206.6141

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If your home or business suffers damage from a storm or other natural disaster, call SERVPRO of West Hartford today at 860.206.6141