If you haven’t already noticed, it is getting colder with each passing day outside.  If you want to stay cozy and warm inside your home this winter, you are going to have to do a few things to make sure it is possible.  Typically folks don’t think about winterizing their home until it is already freezing cold outside.  Hopefully you still have a few weeks winter homebefore the temperatures get down too low to get your home ready for the cold.   In this blog we are going to give you three ways to get your home ready for winter.   

  • Turn your heat on close to 80 degrees and leave it there until you hear the heat come on.  If you hear the system come on and it seems to be making the home nice and toasty then you don’t have to worry about doing anything to your heat for the coming colder months.  However, if you notice that the heat smells funny or that it is not getting the house as warm as you would like it, you may have to call in a professional to do a diagnostic test to see what the problem is and fix it for you.
     
  • Get your fireplace ready for winter by making sure it is free of debris.  Sometimes birds like to make their nests in chimneys and you don’t want to start a fire with a birds nest in the way.  It’s also a good idea to make sure that the damper opens and closes as it should. This will help to insure that any fire you make in the fireplace brings the heat into your home instead of heating the outside.  A good way to check the draft of your fireplace is to light a piece of paper and put in inside the fireplace.  If the smoke rises then you should be good to go, if not then you probably have some sort of obstruction in the way and you need to clean it out properly before you make your first fire of the season.
     
  • Check to make sure that there are no drafts around your doors and windows.  You can purchase weather stripping at your local hardware store if you find that you do have some draftiness.  You would be surprised at how much cold air can get in through even the tiniest of cracks in and around windows and doors in your home. 

Hopefully these tips will get you started in the right direction for getting your home ready for winter.

Information courtesy of Montgomery AL Real Estate Expert Sandra Nickel.