Winter Home Disasters to Avoid

Winter can be tough, extreme temperatures take their toll on our homes. To make matters worse, that time isn’t as far away as many of us might like to believe. Already, we’re turning our lights on earlier and shutting the windows to avoid the morning chill. While fall is officially still a month away, our attentions are shifting toward cold-weather survival. And, our homes come top of that list.

If you’re to stand any chance at creating the warm and cozy winter home of your dreams, then it’s vital you take certain steps towards the goal now. Winter home maintenance is essential for any homeowner. Failure to get around to it this year could see you waking up to any of the following winter morning tragedies.

Burst pipes

Burst pipes are the most common winter disaster of all. They also cause the largest inconvenience during cold weather. Without pipes, after all, you can’t take warm baths. You may also end up with freezing water all over your floor. The solution is to consider preventative measures now. Proper insulation around water pipes is a must. You may also want to invest in solutions for extra heat like the pipe warming wire offered by Heat-Line. Without these small steps, water in your pipes will surely freeze, expand, and ultimately burst out. That’s no way to a warm winter home!

Collapsing gutters

Gutters, too, are prime places for ice-related disaster. As well as stopping healthy drainage, ice can collapse your gutters if you aren’t careful. Think about it; ice is pretty heavy stuff, and ice dams can weigh things down even more. Before you know, then, you could step out to find your guttering all over the floor at a time of year when no one in their right mind will want to replace it. Luckily, avoiding this issue is often as simple as cleaning gutters in advance of the winter chill. That way, water can flow freely and shouldn’t have time to build into heavy ice blocks.

Fire in the hole

As soon as the cold weather rolls around, you’ll probably want to light the fire for cozy evenings moving forward. Sadly, winter is the prime time for chimney fires. That’s not surprising considering many homeowners light right up after a long winter of not even thinking about their chimneys. If you’re one of them, you could end up with a fire that’s out of action at a time where chimney professionals are busier than ever. Instead, avoid this issue altogether by booking in for a chimney sweep now. That way, you can light up without once worrying, and enjoy the gentle flicker of those flames as soon as the weather turns.



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Winter home disasters are awful indeed, but as you can see, avoiding them isn’t all that difficult. Make sure, then, that you do what you can now to make sure you don’t have to clean up a mess when there’s a chill in the air.