How to Protect Your Home in Cold Weather

Alabama winters are notoriously unpredictable.  You may enjoy walking your dog while wearing shorts on a balmy Saturday, and have to shovel snow off your driveway on Monday. While the sudden dramatic drops in temperature can be discombobulating, they can actually be harmful to your home—and to yourself–if you haven’t taken proper precautions. Here are a few of the necessary steps you should take every winter to protect your home and yourself.

1. Prevent a Pipe Nightmare

We all know someone whose pipes have burst on a harsh winter day—and hopefully that someone wasn’t ourselves! When water freezes inside a pipe it expands and can cause the pipe to crack and burst. It’s a disaster! To prevent this from happening to you, always leave faucets dripping in freezing weather. This minimizes the risk that stationary water will freeze inside the pipe. However, this practice is not a foolproof way to prevent bursting—especially as the temperature drops lower and lower. Some more reliable preventative measures include draining water from any outdoor faucets and sprinkler systems, disconnecting outdoor hoses, and insulating pipes that run through any unheated areas of your home like the attic, basement or garage.

1. Insulate

It probably seems obvious that well insulated windows and doors are essential to maintaining the warm temperature inside your home. Unfortunately, because Alabama is in the deep south, new homes are not always built with winter-proof windows and doors. Remedy this problem by putting caulk in any gaps around windows and install weather stripping around doors if necessary. These are relatively easy and inexpensive ways to keep your home toasty and can help you save money on heating costs too. If your home is older, or if you want to be extra vigilant in insulating it from extreme outdoor temperatures, you may even consider upgrading to double- or even triple-pane windows and insulated doors and garage doors to increase the energy efficiency of your home.

1. Stay Warm

If you’ve ever experienced a freezing winter day with no heat in your home, you probably took every precaution possible to make sure it NEVER happened again. For those who have managed to avoid it so far, here’s how to make sure you avoid that situation for good.

Before it even gets cold, you should change your furnace filter. They get dirty quicker than you’d think—and ever quicker if you have furry family members! Dirty filters can cause your heater to work less efficiently—so you’re not staying as warm, and you’re probably paying more too. Plan to change out your filter every two to four months to make sure your heater functions optimally. 

1. Keep it Burning

If you’re lucky enough to have a fireplace in your home, it can be a wonderful way to keep your home cozy and toasty through the winter. But before you light that first fire of the season, it’s important to check your chimney to make sure it is clear of debris (and possibly little critters!) Debris in your chimney can catch fire, so making sure it’s clear is an absolute necessity. And don’t forget to place a screen around your fire while it’s burning to protect your home from a possible fire or other damage that can be caused by escaping sparks and embers.

You’ll also want to keep the flue closed all the way when you’re not using the fireplace to keep your home’s warm air from escaping out the chimney. For extra insulation, install glass fireplace doors to keep closed while your fireplace is not in use. These measures will keep your home warmer and your heating bill lower. You should never be able to feel any cold air coming down the chimney or through the fireplace! 

We hope that this advice will help you keep your home cozy—and your electric bill manageable—through the coldest days of the winter. Check back often for more home maintenance tips throughout the year.