During Winter months, it's easy to let things slip when it comes to home care. With the unpredictability of the weather lately, a cold snap can catch you out, and unfortunately this can sometimes have a serious impact upon your home.
A little time spent checking your home during Spring or Summer can really prevent major headaches should a sudden harsh cold snap descend. There are several things that you can do to help prevent serious issues in and around the home . Here's my top 5 tips to prepare your home for Winter;
1) Insulate and stay warm.
Ok so it seems obvious and most of us do have loft insulation, but how thick is that insulation and how long has it been up there?
Research shows that overtime your loft insulation can become less effective, this can not only lead to heat loss but also impact the cost of heating your home.
For a relatively low cost, and minimal effort, your loft can be re-insulated, improving the heat retention and saving on heating bills in the process.
2) Lagging your pipes.
Believe it or not many of us do not have lagged pipes. A sudden cold snap can freeze the water in the pipes causing it to expand. This in turn can rupture pipes and cause serious damage possibly even flooding when the water defrosts. Not a situation you want when a thaw occurs.
Lagged pipes help prevent freezing and companies such as Heatline.com can assess what is required and carry out any work that is needed to prevent pipes bursting.
3) In the event of a power cut, be prepared
The old Boy Scout motto of 'Be Prepared' is worth remembering, even though power cuts are thankfully rare.
It's worth keeping items such as torches and spare batteries handy. It's also worth keeping a mobile battery handy, and charged should your phone have a removable battery. Battery powered candles, and lights can add a touch of warmth to your interior and are a cheap, safe alternative to traditional flame candles.
Wind up radios and torches can also prove to be incredibly useful in the event of a blackout and it's worth having a dedicated 'emergency' box to store your emergency supplies in.
4) Is your garden protected?
It seems odd but your garden can be seriously impacted by a harsh Winter.
Any powered items such as lawnmowers or ornamental features should be placed in storage such as a shed or garage. If they can't be moved it might be worth covering them until the cold snap ends.
This is a very simple and inexpensive job to perform and simple bubble wrap can help prevent frost damage to features or more delicate plants you may wish to preserve.
5) Draft prevention
It's pretty self explanatory but we often don't notice drafts until the weather turns really cold!
Drafts not only let cold in but they let all that lovely warmth out. They can make your home uncomfortable and increase heating costs as all that warm air escapes.
Fortunately draft exclusion is relatively cheap and readily available. It's worth going around your home in warmer months looking for gaps under doors and around older windows. Simple stick on draft exclusion tape is a low cost, simple to install option for windows, whilst many traditional decorative and fun draft excluder 'snakes' or sausages are available off the shelf in most homeware stores.
So how prepared are you for Winter this year and do you have any tips you'd like to share? I'd love to hear them!
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