How to Winterise Your Home. The winter months are a mixed bag, to say the least. They bring with them the promise of family and fun via the festive period, but bring some terrible climate conditions with them too. Dark and cold days are slim comfort, particularly if you’re shivering even when at home and at rest. This is to say nothing of the increased likelihood of strong and inclement weather conditions, which can pose serious risks to the unprepared home. How, then, could you ‘winterise’ your property to get it ready – and above all, comfortable – for the coming winter?
Clean the Gutters
Before the temperature drops too low, you might think to get up to your home’s gutters and clear them of any debris or detritus. Leaves and other organic matter can rot into mulch, blocking your gutters and allowing rainwater to accumulate where it shouldn’t.
In the short term, this might mean water coursing down the outside of your gutter or splashing you as you leave your home; in the long term, this can accelerate the ingress of water via your rooking or brickwork, with potentially disastrous consequences – and disastrous repair costs, too.
Check the Boiler
Your next port of call might be to check on your home’s boiler and wider central heating system. Generally speaking, you should be activating your heating system early into the winter, if only for an hour a day. This is to prevent your heating pipes from freezing over, which can block your heating systems (making for a cold home) and even burst your pipes (making for costly plumbing fixes).
A preliminary check of your boiler’s health might also reveal that it is no longer up to the job, whether struggling to heat your home quickly or being unacceptably energy-inefficient in doing so. If you find this, you might want to consider a combi boiler for better energy efficiency over the colder months.
Check Windows and Doors
Draughts are another key consideration; while they don’t do much in regard to wicking heat from your home, they do a great deal to reduce the felt temperature in a space. That slight cold breeze could be responsible for higher heating bills, just on account of bringing on a chill. Addressing areas where draughts might come in then, could work wonders for the winter comfort of your living spaces. Even just going around door and window sills with a caulk gun could be all that’s necessary to cut down on cold sensations.
Insulate!
That said, there is a much more involved measure you could take ahead of the winter months to guarantee your comfort: insulating your home. If your home is older or hasn’t been renovated in some time, the benefits of insulation would not only be great but also immediately felt. Loft insulation prevents heat from leaving via the upper floors, while cavity wall insulation prevents heat from transferring through your brickwork.
Hope you’ve found our article, How to Winterise Your Home useful.
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