Fall Home Maintenance Tips to Prepare Your Home for Winter
Fall is a beautiful time in our Nation’s Capital! The leaves are stunning across the Gatineau Hills, and there are corn mazes, pumpkin patches and beautiful fall hikes to enjoy. And for a few short weeks, Ottawa’s weather is the perfect combination of crisp fall mornings and beautiful sunny days. But before you know it, winter will be here with its snow, ice and harsh conditions.
Winter weather can be especially hard on our homes, but a little preparation will help ensure your house is ready for whatever the season throws at it. Don’t wait for the weather to turn nasty to start preparing for the coming months. Here are six great fall home maintenance tips to help get your home ready for winter.
1. Pack Up Your Outdoor Furniture and Accessories
Winter weather isn’t just hard on your home. Anything that stays outside is likely to suffer damages from snow and ice. Keep your lawn furniture and other outdoor accessories looking their best by storing or covering them for the winter.
This includes patio furniture, landscape lighting, birdbaths, fire and water features, and planters. If you don’t have a garage or shed to store large items in, invest in covers to protect them from the elements. It’s well worth it to not have to replace everything in the spring.
2. Drain Exterior Water
Preparing your home for winter in Ottawa means getting ready for sub-zero temperatures. And when the temperatures drop, exterior water pipes can freeze and burst. To avoid costly damages, you should always drain and properly store any exterior accessories that use water such as hoses, sprinklers, fountains and ponds.
3. Clean Your Gutters
It’s probably not high on your list of favourite tasks, but cleaning your gutters is an important job. Your eavestroughs and downspouts divert a lot of water away from your home all year long. If the gutters are clogged, the water has nowhere to go but back toward your house. Water from overflowing gutters is a major cause of exterior cladding damage, foundation problems and basement flooding. To make this task most effective, wait until the leaves have fallen to ensure gutters won’t fill back up.
4. Test Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
We all know it’s important to test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors annually. Since winter is when most house fires and carbon monoxide leaks occur, replacing the batteries every fall will ensure your alarms are working when you need them most.
5. Ready Your Heat Source(s)
No matter how you heat your home, you should always test your heat supply before winter weather arrives. You don’t want to wait until you really need it to find out your furnace is on the fritz or your baseboard is busted! Check your thermostat and turn up the heat to ensure your furnace or baseboard heaters are in good working condition. Fall is also a good time to change your filters and have an annual furnace inspection. A little maintenance will help ensure your heating systems have a long life.
If you have a fireplace in your home, you should have your chimney cleaned and inspected before the first fire of the season. This is also a good time to inspect stovepipes for cracks, holes or corrosion. And don’t forget to stock up on firewood or have propane tanks filled to avoid delays during the busy season.
6. Make Sure Your Winter Equipment is Working
Fall is the time to get your snow removal equipment ready! Power up your snow blower and make sure it’s working correctly and ensure that you have oil and gas on hand. If it needs maintenance, call for service now before they get too busy.
Get out shovels, scrapers and ice picks and have them handy by the front and garage doors. There’s nothing worse than realizing all your shovels are in the shed that’s blocked by snow. It’s also wise to stock up on sand and salt so you’re ready when that first snowfall hits!
A little preparation is all you need to ensure your home is ready for another winter in Ottawa. Check these fall home maintenance tasks off your list before the snow flies.