The beautiful midwest Fall weather has arrived! Now is a great time to take advantage of the moderate weather and get your home repaired and ready for winter. Below is our list of top things to do to prepare for colder weather:
- Winterize your sprinkler system. In order to protect your pipes from potentially serious damage throughout the winter, you will want to winterize them. You can blow it out yourself, or you can call a sprinkler company to winterize it for you. We recommend Brian Lingner with Lingner Residential Services. 913.424.6971 | [email protected]
- Winterize your outside faucets and fixtures. To do this, first disconnect any hoses or connections from the spigots. Make sure there is no leakage of the faucet, drain as much water as you can from them and then cover them with some sort of insulation. An easy way is a hose bib cover which you can get at Home Depot for around $2.
- Prepare your furnace. Once it’s time to turn the furnace on, you will want to replace your air filter and change your dampers to divert more warm air to the lower levels of the home. If you need your furnace cleaned or serviced, you can call Scott Walden with Walden and Sons Heating & Cooling at 913.461.5542. After you turn the furnace on, you should also turn on your humidifiers. You can also change the direction of your ceiling fans to bring that warm air back down from the ceiling.
- Stop air leakage. Once you are done using your attic fan for the fall season, you can cover it with an attic fan cover to stop air leakage throughout the winter as the warm air in your home will try to rise and escape through your attic fan vents. Just make sure you uncover it before you turn it back on again in the spring! You may also want to check other areas for air leakage such as under doors and add weather stripping and door sweeps as needed.
- Clean up leaves. Once the leaves have fallen, make sure you clean out your gutters and remove leaves from behind bushes and landscaping so they don’t cause more work for you in the spring. If you’d like to have someone else clean your gutters, Heart of America Window Cleaning can do that for you. You can reach them at 913.791.4068 | [email protected].
- Prepare your fireplace. If you plan on using your fireplace and you haven’t had your chimney cleaned or inspected in a while, you may want to have that done. You can call Chimney Medic at 816.322.5390 | [email protected].
Of course there are many other things you can do this time of year like touching up exterior paint, vacuuming out your air conditioner, recaulking seams, repairing cracks in your driveway and concrete and checking the batteries in your smoke detectors. If you have any questions about an of this or any other home maintenance OR if you are in need of other service providers, please don’t hesitate to contact us!