Fall Home Maintenance Tips – Keeping Warm/Doors & Windows

We will be passing on a series of tips to help you transition your home and yard to the fall season. We will cover the following in a series of blog posts:

  ~  Home Exterior  ~  Keeping Warm/Doors and Windows  ~
  ~  Gardens  ~  Lawn Care  ~  Attic Pest Control  ~
~  Carbon Monoxide and Smoke Detectors  ~

In our last article, we covered “Your Home’s Exterior” in our last post. Now let’s talk about how to keep warm this fall in your home.

Keeping Warm

• Have your wood-burning fireplace inspected, cleaned and repaired to prevent chimney fires and carbon monoxide poisoning.

• Wrap water pipes that run along exterior walls with heating tape. It will save energy and prevent them from freezing.

• Clean and replace filters in your furnace or heating system. Contact a licensed heating contractor to inspect and service your gas heater or furnace to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning. Your local utility company will often provide this service for free.

• If you use a hot water system for heating, drain the expansion tank, check the water pressure, and bleed your radiators.

• Check the attic to make sure the insulation is installed properly. The vapor barrier on insulation should face down toward the living space. If it is installed incorrectly (with the vapor barrier facing up) then the insulation will trap moisture causing possible water problems. Cut slits in the vapor barrier to allow moisture to escape. To install attic insulation, unroll the insulation with the paper side out. Install small pieces of insulation between the joists on the attic floor. Be careful not to step between the joists.

Doors & Windows

The change in temperature and humidity and normal wear and tear can cause window seals to crack and shrink.

• Check your windows and doors inside and out for leaks and drafts.

• Caulk cracks or install weather stripping around windows and doors, including the garage door.

• Replace screens with storm windows and clean them if needed