Living in a climate emergency means being prepared for how the weather and temperature can swing from one extreme to the next. This year is no exception. After experiencing one of the hottest summers on record, people might expect one of the coldest falls and winters they’ve ever had.
It will be autumn again in less than two months, and their homes need to be prepared for the sudden change. Here are some tips and pointers for preparing your home for autumn.
Insulate it
People can’t wait until the temperature cools down before they insulate their homes. A properly and perfectly insulated home can help you save so much on energy costs since you won’t have to rely too much on heating. Here is a checklist for giving your home properly insulation:
- Check any broken windows that need replacements or repairs as soon as possible. Now may even be a good time to experiment with new window styles and treatments, especially if your home is on the older side and you have never once had the windows properly maintained or changed.
- Inspect your house for air tightness and use caulk and weather strip to seal windows and doors that still leak air.
- Have professionals check your electrical wiring, plumbing, ducting, ceilings, floors, and everywhere else where air could be leaking.
- Another area you need to have checked is the potential existence of mold and mildew growth. You can always have these dirty spots cleaned and sealed through a spray foam that was developed for this exact purpose.
- There are also foam sealants available in the market that can help seal bigger gaps around baseboards, windows, and other holes where air may leak.
- Don’t forget furnaces, chimneys, gas-fired water heater vents, and other often-neglected areas where air might leak.
Inspect the roof and gutters
The second most important part of your home that you need to consider is the roof, especially if you haven’t checked it since last winter. Make sure your roof and gutters are immaculate and spotless. If possible, you can even have your gutters replaced.
The thing with homeowners is that they often think their gutters are working as well as they could. But they forget that those also need some tender loving care. When they’re clogged with leaves, dead tree limbs, twigs, and other debris, they can end up damaging the home’s exteriors and flooding the interiors. That’s why gutters need to be cleaned in preparation for fall, all the better if they are replaced.
Give your outdoor furniture some TLC
Once summer comes to a close, inspect your outdoor furniture pieces one by one to see if any of them were damaged and need repairing. Once you’re sure that everything is in tip-top shape, consider bringing them inside your home, especially once monsoon season starts.
Just because your furniture pieces have the “outdoor” label on them, it doesn’t mean they are completely weatherproofed. There’s no need to test that label, especially if you’re not planning on spending too much time outdoors during autumn and winter. It will cost you a lot of money to replace these pieces once the warmer months come again, so it’s better to prevent damage than remedying it when the time comes.
Find cracks in the driveway and fix them
More often than not, cracks in the driveway are one of those small issues that homeowners tend to look at and say, “Meh, it will be fine.” It might very well be, but water can easily get into those cracks—even hairline ones—and once water does get through, it can freeze, expand, and cause the crack to grow even bigger.
If you have one too many small cracks, they can all turn into bigger cracks which can then cause the entire concrete of your driveway to crumble. So yes, it might be fine, but when it’s not, then you might end up with a driveway that has a giant hole in it. So the best and safest thing to do is to purchase concrete crack sealers, fill up those lines and problem areas, and rest assured that you’ve dealt with that problem as soon as you could.
Other tips
- Fertilize your lawn so that the roots continue to grow even if the grass stops growing.
- Make sure all your winter equipment is working well.
- Check all the batteries in your smoke detectors.
When it comes to people’s homes, prevention is better than cure. Equip it for the worst of what fall and winter can offer so that you can enjoy the changing of seasons no matter what.
