Winterization Tips

       With the weather growing colder, I wanted to touch on some good ways to help winterize your home and property. Winterizing not only can save you a lot of money, but it will also extend the life of your home.
        Most of my tips I am passing along here, are taken from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), and their website: www.fema.gov

Insulation

         

        One of the best money saving steps that you can invest in for the winter is insulation. I just recently did this for my home for a ripping good deal, filling both sides of my attic, and noticed an immediate difference. This not only helps to keep the heat in your home throughout the cold months, lowering your heating bill, but it also helps to keep it cool during the warmer months too.
          Some good news about this process is that many gas and power companies will actually either pay for most of it, or, like in my situation, offer a mail in rebate. When all was said and done, I only ended up paying $99 for all of my attic to be re-insulated. I am now saving almost twice that a year. According to the men who came in installed the insulation you will usually only need to do it every 5-10 years. A great investment!

Caulking and Weather-Stripping

         Replacing and/or adding caulking and weather-stripping is a measure that I have also recently taken on my own home. This is a measure that you will do on doors and windows, preventing cold air to leak in and the warm to leak out. I used a putty knife, caulking and caulking gun, and a utility knife for trimming the weather-stripping, when I redid my doors and windows. You will want to be sure to remove any old caulking or weather-stripping prior to applying the new.
          There are a number of youtube videos that can give you a step by step tutorial on this.

Storm Windows and Plastic Covering

      Having an extra layer/buffer on your windows will improve the internal warmth of your home dramatically. The two most common way for doing this are storm windows and plastic. Storm windows are naturally the long term solution for your home, and can in some situations increase the value of the home. However, if you are like me, and have to be kind of choosy of which preps you do each month, then I would recommend using clear plastic. It can really be any type of large plastic sheeting, it's clarity does not seem to effect the warming effects, so I recommend getting as clear of plastic as you can, as to not limit either the sunlight, or attractiveness of your home. You can pull the plastic tight and flat enough that it is not immediately obvious.

Heating Equipment and Chimneys

        Few things are as nice in the winter as drinking a warm beverage while curled next to a crackling fire, or in a toasty room while looking out upon a frozen country side. For this reason I am greatly looking forward to putting my fireplace to good use this winter. However, prior to ever using it, or even using your heater, you should do a little bit of preventative maintenance on them. I actually just scheduled a chimney sweep to come and clean and inspect my chimney, and it only cost $119, and it is something that should be done at least once a year, if only for safety reasons.
         For your heater, a simple thing that you can do to help it run better and improve the overall quality of the air in your house is to simply change the filter. You can do this anywhere from $5-$25.
          You will also want to have all fuel burning and heating equipment vented and clear from clutter.
          I also recommend that you keep a fire extinguisher handy for emergencies.

Outdoor Winterization

        Winterizing the outside of your home can save you money by preventing damage to your home and property. One thing you should do every fall is to clean out your rain gutters, as this prevents moisture build up that can expand to damage your home and gutters when it freezes. You clean them in the fall, that way you can remove all of the fallen leaves and other debris from trees.
          You will also want to cut away any tree branches that could fall onto your house or other structures should they become overburdened by snow or ice. This is something that also is good to do for general storm protection.

Pipe Insulation

       You can also provide insulation for the pipes in your home. You can do this either by purchasing foam pipe insulation, as seen above, or FEMA recommends that you can wrap pipes in newspaper and plastic, though I think I would recommend the foam pipe covers, as I feel they are not only easier but safer.



Stay prepared, stay safe!