It has happened again. I blinked and summer was over! Fall has been pretty forgiving so far, but it’s beginning to get restless out there and time for winterizing our homes is fast running out. Our upcoming newsletter will have an extensive discussion of everything that can be done to fully and properly winterize your home. Here, though, I wanted to mention a few things that YOU can do NOW (or this weekend) to give yourself a DIY running start in preparing your house for the coming La Niña winter cold.
1. Replace those furnace filters! If you use your furnace’s fan all summer to move air around your house like I do, by now it has trapped and killed more dust bunnies than it can hold. In order for furnaces to run at their peak efficiency, their airways need to be as clean as possible. A new filter costs a few bucks and takes a few minutes to install. Make a note of your filter size, then pick up a new one (or three) now.
2. Unless you have the self draining / frost free hose bibbs on your house, you’ll NEED to cover those things with the latest in foam technology: the $4 foam hose bibb cover available at every hardware and home improvement store in America. For best results, do this BEFORE the fist big freeze (trust me!!!). If you have the newer frost free bibbs, make sure to disconnect your hoses from them or they can freeze.
3. It’s no treat, but just go do it: CLEAN those gutters and downspouts! Its dirty, it’s messy, it’s up on a ladder, and if it’s raining it’s even more fun, but really, cleaning your gutters now will save you a major headache when winter shows its face. If you have clogged gutters when it freezes, the ice can cause all kinds of problems, not the least of which is damaging the gutters themselves. Don’t wait until this job goes from irritating to emergency.
These are 3 of the big deals on most winterizing lists that you can take care of on your own and save some money in the process. Remember while you are cursing up on a ladder, that we do these things as ounces of prevention because if we don’t, we pay a much greater price. Happy fall and rest easy this winter (I’m sure you’ll hear me grumbling from the top of my ladder this weekend too!) And if these are things that you just don’t want to do, or you have a gutter that’s a hundred feet up there, or not sure what how to get it done, then just call our service department. They’ll show up with the perfect ladder and leave your yard clean too.
47.615294
-122.313987