Preparing Your Home For the Winter

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Each year, it’s important to think about getting our homes ready for winter. Our homes and gardens will naturally experience some wear and tear throughout the year, but its essential to tick off any odd jobs around the home that will be more difficult to do in winter or may impact how well our homes keep us warm.

Here are some ways to prepare your home for the winter months -

 

Maintenance

Winter is a hard time to get any outdoor work done on your home, so I highly recommend doing any maintenance work before the colder months set in. Make sure that your home is properly insulated for winter weather. 

 

Ensuring that your water and heating supply functions properly in the winter is a must, especially if you live in an area that get very harsh winters. Looking into a freeze protect system for your water pipes is a good idea. You can see what cost-effective frost protection pipes are available for your home on this website. This will keep your pipes from freezing over, making sure you have a constant water and heating supply throughout the winter.

 

If you have heavy-duty work and renovations to do, crane mat rental can give you a good foundation to work on and get your jobs done in a timely manner and before the cold winter days set in.

 

Garden

Before it becomes too cold to venture outdoors for more than five minutes, autumn is the perfect time to prepare your lawn and garden for the winter.

 

When it comes to lawn care, it’s still important to mow your lawn a couple of times a week in the run up to winter. Lift the blade height of your mower to leave your grass slightly longer and allow it to protect itself from the elements. As soon as winter hits and your grass becomes frosty, try to avoid stepping on its surface as you can end up snapping the blades of grass and causing damage.

 

Another pre-winter lawn care task is to rake up any fallen leaves regularly to prevent the leaves from blocking your lawns sunlight. Without the sun, your grass is at a higher risk of moss and fungal diseases developing.

 

Another tip for preparing your garden for winter is to plant some winter vegetables. Why not tick some food off your Christmas shopping list by attempting to grow leeks, cauliflower, parsnips, cabbage, or even infamous Brussel sprouts in your backyard.

 

Finally, make sure you have outdoor lights set up and functioning for both security and safety reasons, so you can tick off your lawn care tasks despite the dark mornings and nights.

 

Security

Next up, make sure your home is secure both in and outdoors. Store away any garden furniture, decor, toys and more that could be damaged or blown away during winter and make sure these are locked up safely.

 

Bring in any more delicate and less weather-resistant plants from your garden too such as potted flowering plants and hanging baskets.

 

Warmth

As well as thinking about how secure and well-protected the outdoors of your home is, think about the inside of your home too. The main thing to consider is the health and reliability of your boiler. If you haven’t yet booked in for a service this year, do this soon before you need to rely on your boiler fulltime so any pressing issues can be identified and solved before the freezing temperatures.

 

If you’ve had your boiler for over ten years, you may want to opt for a boiler replacement to ensure that your heating won't be affected in the colder months and that it will run more efficiently too.