Winter is the most wonderful time of the year, however, if you fail to be prepare your home for the winter it has the potential of being one of the most miserable times of the year. So, precautions should be taken to ensure that you are prepared to overcome the worst that winter has to throw your way. This includes making sure you have proper homeowners insurance.
Understanding the cold
There are many dangers which can pose an issue during the winter, such as icy walkways and driveways. Another thing which can pose an issue is the snowfall which occurs, causing your driveway, and sidewalks to become filled.
Preparing your home
Clean your gutters – If you take no effort to clean your gutter, this will pose the threat of your gutters being damaged, and beat up by the weight of the snow. In worst cases, gutters can even fall down, or fall apart.
Fireplaces – These are a great, comforting source of heat during the winter. It is because of this that the fireplace should be properly respected and maintained. So, when you are not using your fireplace, you should close the flue so snow does not fall into it, and so cold air has little to no potential of finding it’s way into your home.
Water System – Cold, and hot running water is necessary for maintaining a normal home. This is why it is important to wrap your water pipes wherever they may be in order to slow heat transfer from them to the outside. This will also prevent your pipes from freezing. It is also worth keeping the faucets on a very slow trickle in order to keep the water in the pipes flowing, which will prevent your pipes from freezing up.
A side note worth mentioning as well is that you should take into consideration how good your insulation is in your home and whether that is worth addressing in order to make your home less prone to letting heat escape, and let the cold air replace it.