How to Winterize Your Home

Follow these fall maintenance tips to get your home ready for winter.

Winterizing your home can save you cash and make your winter much more comfortable and relaxing. Prepare your home for another Midwest winter with these fall home maintenance tips from Blain’s Farm & Fleet.

Check & Seal All Your Windows and Doors

A big part of winterizing a house is making sure the heat works well and stays inside. There are a few things you can do to make this happen.

Check your window and door locks to make sure they’re all working properly. A sturdy, tight window or door lock is key to keeping the frame pressed tightly into the window sill or door jamb. The tight seal will keep warm air from escaping, which can save you money on your heating bill.

Look for air leaks around your windows and doors, and insulate them with window insulation kits and weather stripping. Even gaps as small as 1/8” can create major air loss.

On a windy day, carefully hold a lit incense stick or smoke pen up to the cracks around your windows, doors, ceiling fixtures, and attic hatches. If the smoke stream travels horizontally, you have located an air leak that may need caulking or weather stripping.

Make sure the caulking around your doors and windows is adequate to reduce the heat loss that happens in mid-winter. Check glazing for loose or missing putty or compound.

Re-glaze or re-putty problem areas. This will also help reduce water damage to your windows and door frames.

Inspect Your Home for Water Leaks

Winterizing your home means priming it to be energy efficient during the colder months. This means inspecting your plumbing, too.

Check all the faucets in your home for any type of leak. Check around the bottom of your dishwasher by leaving paper towels outside the machine while it’s in use.

Take some time to inspect the pipes underneath your sinks and tubs.

Check your toilet by dropping some food coloring in its tank. Watch the bowl of your toilet for a few minutes to see if any of the food coloring appears. If coloring appears, this means you have a slow leak.

You can also use your water meter to check for any hidden leaks. Check the reading on your meter while all faucets and appliances are off. And do so again in an hour, without running any water.

If your meter has moved, you have a hidden water leak somewhere in your house.

Protect Your Home’s Plumbing & Electrical From Cold Weather

Another key part of winterizing your home is making sure none of your plumbing freezes. Insulate the water pipes in your home’s crawl spaces and attic with pipe insulation.

These exposed pipes are most susceptible to freezing. You can use heat tape or heat cables to wrap the pipes. This will keep them warm and prevent frozen pipes.

Seal any leaks that allow cold air inside your home near your pipes. Look for additional leaks near electrical wiring and dryer vents.

Perform Regular Maintenance on Your Heating System

Winterizing your house is all about making sure your home is warm, safe, and ready for winter.

Have a heating professional check your heating system every year. A certified chimney sweep should inspect wood-burning stove connector pipes and chimneys once per year.

Replace your furnace filter. You should replace furnace filters frequently to allow your heating and cooling systems to operate properly.

Inspect and clean dust from the covers of your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Add new batteries, as well.

Clean the Gutters

You want to make sure your gutters are clear before winter hits. If they’re clogged, snow won’t be able to drain properly.

Clear out any dead leaves and other debris that may be blocking them. Make sure you do this once all the leaves have fallen off your trees, to ensure they don’t get re-clogged before the first snow.

You can also install gutter guards to protect them and keep them from getting clogged.

Clear Out Any Bird Nests From Summer

Remove bird nests from your chimney flue and outdoor electrical fixtures. Bird nests on top of light fixtures are a fire hazard. Bird nests in chimney flues can prevent proper venting of harmful combustion gases, and they can catch fire.

Exercise great caution when working on your roof. Consider hiring a professional to take care of this work.

Prepare for Wet Shoes & Boots

Make sure there are working night lights at the top and bottom of all stairs. Tile and painted wood or concrete stairs can be slippery when wet or when a person’s shoes are wet.

Resurface the treads with slip-resistant strips near the stair nosing. All stairs of at least three risers should have a handrail.

Use a shoe dryer and door mats to reduce the amount of water you get on the floor.

Winterizing your home is a lot of work, but it saves you headaches down the road. Get it done during fall, and relax this winter.

For more home maintenance tips and how-tos, check out our Home Maintenance Blog.