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Jul 22, 2016
Loveland CO Home Winter Prep
- Show some love to your heating system: For about $80-$100 you can hire a technician in Loveland to come inspect and clean your furnace to ensure that your house is being heated efficiently. This inspection should also include a carbon-monoxide check to make sure there hasn’t been any leakage.
- Reverse your ceiling fans: If your ceiling fans have a reverse option, use it to run them counterclockwise during the winter. This will create an updraft and push heated air from the ceiling down into the room. This might even allow you to turn down your thermostat a degree or two and save a few dollars on your energy bill!
- Inspect your roof: Before mounds of snow accumulates on your roof, scan it for damaged, loose or missing shingles. Remember, it’s easier to fix these now than deal with a leak once winter arrives. Don’t forget to be safe with the ladder or hire a handyman if needed.
- Clean out your gutters: While inspecting your roof, take a few minutes to sweep out your gutters. Gutters full of leaves can back up water and ultimately cause severe damage to roofing, trim or siding. It can also cause leaks and ice dams to form when blocked.
- Clean out your gutters: While inspecting your roof, take a few minutes to sweep out your gutters. Gutters full of leaves can back up water and ultimately cause severe damage to roofing, trim or siding. It can also cause leaks and ice dams to form when blocked.
- Turn off exterior faucets, bring in your garden hoses and drain sprinkler systems: Failing to blow out you’re your sprinkler system prior to the first freeze or shutting off outdoor water hookups can cause pipes to freeze, back up and sometimes burst as the ice expands. Be sure to disconnect all garden hoses and drain the remaining water. If you don’t have frost proof faucets (older homes typically don’t), turn off the shut-off valve inside your home.
- Seal it up: Put your hands near major windows and doors in your home to check which ones are letting in a cool airflow. Install door sweeps and use caulk or weather-strips around window edges to block this air and keep your home better insulated.
- Boost your lighting: Short and dreary days are inevitable in the thick of winter, but you can open up window blinds during the day and make use of natural light. Not only will this brighten up your days, but it may also save on your electric bill.
- Warm up with color: It’s amazing what an accent pillow or new set of drapes can do to boost the mood in your home. Bright colors will keep rooms cheerful even on the coldest and darkest of winter days.
- Add a mudroom: If you don’t already have a mudroom in your new home in Loveland, consider adding one as it is the first-line of defense to winter muck entering your home. It also gives kids a place to stomp the snow off their boots instead of tracking it in on your clean carpets. Mudrooms also provide much needed storage for those extra winter layers.
- Stock up on winter supplies: Don’t wait until the first storm to go out and purchase a bag of salt for melting the snow in your driveway. When your car is parked in, you’ll need that sturdy shovel handy to clear a path. While making your list of winter supplies, don’t forget to pick up some hot cocoa and marshmallows—they’re a winter essential in every home!
