Brrrrrrr! Is it me or is it starting to get chilly? I’m sure I’ve seen more people with coats and scarves recently and although I really do love the warm summer months, I must admit that I’m secretly looking forward to cosy nights in with the candles on. This all means that winter is approaching but before it sets in properly, it’s time to make sure our homes are ready for the bad weather.
Depending on the type of property you have, there will be different jobs that you may need to get done. For me, there isn’t anything too major in my flat, except the windows that desperately need to be resealed as they let such a draft in and my electric bills are always through the roof. We’re painting the bedroom and living room too to give it a freshen up!
Whatever the major jobs are in your home, be quick them though because the rain, wind, and maybe even snow will be on us in no time!
BATHROOM
First on the list of jobs is to make sure your bathroom is ready for the cold weather. Of course, there are a fair few things to do here, including checking that your hot water boiler is working right. After all, you won’t want to be taking freezing showers in the dead of winter now, will you?
It’s a smart idea to do a few others bits now as well, including cleaning or replacing the grouting in the bath and shower. This is because it can be a real pain to try and get this to draw when the cold, wet weather comes. Especially if you are trying to reduce the growth of mould and mildew.
OUTSIDE
Next, you must attend to any DIY and maintenance jobs on the outside of your home. This is, in fact, for several reasons, the most important one being that you are unlikely to want to spend time out of doors working on your house if the weather is poor. Not to mention that this can be very dangerous as well, particularly if such work involved high places and ladders.
Of course, there will be a few other outside maintenance tasks that you need to make sure you get done before the bad weather begins as well. One such task to make sure that you don’t have any blocked drains around your property. Otherwise, if you get a lot of rain, you could be facing a nasty issue like flooding and damp.
Additionally, making sure that your drain pipes are free of leaves and debris is pretty essential too. In fact, if they are blocked, you can get standing water in the drain pipes, which is none too hygienic. It can even start to come through the walls into your home as well, which you certainly don’t want when the weather turns.
WINDOWS
Finally, before the night starts to draw in, be sure that you have plugged up any gaps around your windows. This is because windows tend to be weak points in the home when it comes to insulation, and can make it very difficult to keep all that hot air inside.
Actually, they can even let cold air into the house if there is enough wind, and this plus the previously mentioned problem will mean you’ll have a larger heating bill to deal with! Best be quick though, because as they say in GOT… Winter is coming!
