With winter approaching in the midwest, prepping your home can take some time. Especially with everything else that goes on in your everyday life. Taking a look at your home before the winter can help when the cold does arrive. Here are 5 tips Blue River Restoration has for winter home prep tips to do in the fall.
Adding insulation can improve your home’s energy efficiency: By doing this, your home will be able to keep more heat in during the winter months and also the cool air in the summer. Now, this is not the most fun project especially if you choose to take down the drywall but adding more to your attic, basement and crawl space will help as well.
Upgrading your doors and windows if needed: Replacing your windows and doors can also help reduce the amount of cold air that gets into your house during the winter months. The material chosen can also matter when it comes to being the most efficient. Such as steel or fiberglass doors are more efficient than wood doors.
Recaulking and redoing weather stripping: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a home loses 5 to 30 percent of its heat due to chilly drafts. Remodelers fill corners and gaps with fresh caulking and apply weather stripping on outside-facing doors and windows to stop heat loss.
Installing a new programmable thermostat: With inventions such as Nest, when it comes to thermostats, the choices are now easy. These programmable thermostats will help cut down on the cost of heating and cooling because of the technology in them. Many of these devices can store half a dozen commands to account for the comings and goings of an entire family during the course of a day. These can also be manually overridden whenever schedules change. It is a simple DIY project that will pay itself back in no time.
Adding or upgrading a fireplace: Adding a new fireplace to your living room, or remodeling an existing one, is one thing to make sure your home stays toasty this winter. This project can be a great addition to your home and can help cut down on heating cost. Thanks to direct venting, a complex and intimidating chimney system are not required to enjoy a fireplace in your home. Also once the fireplace gets your home to a certain point, the furnace will turn off, saving you money. Full-scale stone hearth and mantel set-ups can cost upwards of $30,000. Gas-burning fireplaces are normally around a couple thousand dollars.
These winter home prep tips listed above can also improve the over function of your home along with the maintenance. Keep up with your home can benefit it in many ways.
