Wondering how to keep your home more comfortable in extreme weather, while also lowering maintenance and repair costs? Weatherizing your home is a great choice with many benefits. When you protect your home from the worst weather conditions, you won’t experience problems with heating or cooling it. You won’t have to repair as many leaks or other issues, either. In this guide, we’ll show you the basics you need to get started weatherizing your home. Read on to learn what you need to know!
Not sure if weatherizing your home is worth it? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why this is so important.
From leaks to frozen pipes, there are many different ways water can get in and damage your home if it’s not weatherized.
You might already use tactics like letting faucets run to prevent the pipes from freezing. However, it’s much more energy efficient to insulate water pipes instead.
Winterizing also prevents leaks and worse roof damage, which can be incredibly expensive to repair.
Weatherizing can even help protect your home from house fires. When you’re in the habit of weatherizing your home each year, you can make that the time to replace the batteries in your smoke alarms, so they’re always up to date.
You’ll also want to inspect the chimney, if you have a woodstove or firepit, and clean it out if necessary. Otherwise, you could end up with a chimney fire.
Carbon monoxide poisoning is a frequent issue in the winter. Appliances that burn fuel, such as furnaces powered by gas, release carbon monoxide into the air. Usually, it’s not enough to cause a problem.
However, if your furnace isn’t well-maintained, the carbon monoxide levels can become dangerous. If you inspect the furnace each fall as part of the weatherizing process, you can prevent this dangerous issue.
You can also change the batteries in your carbon monoxide detectors at the same time as you change the ones in your smoke alarms, to keep yourself and your family safe.
Keeping your home heated and cooled can get very expensive if it’s not weatherized. When you weatherize your home, you’ll find potential places where warm or cool air can travel into your home from outside. The more you seal up those spots, the better your heat and air conditioning can work.
Now that you know why these steps are so important, let’s take a look at what you’ll need to do to protect your home from the elements. In addition to the tips listed above, these are inexpensive ways to safeguard your home all year long.
Did you know the little gaps around your doors can let in so much air, it’s like a window is open? Door sweeps on your exterior doors is a great way to prevent all that air from getting inside your home.
Door sweeps aren’t expensive and can be installed in a matter of minutes.
You should also install weatherstripping on your doors and windows to help keep the elements out. This is another inexpensive, easy way to stop the outside air from getting in.
Weatherstripping can cover any gap. If you’re not sure where you need it, try putting your fingernail between your window and window frame. If you can do it, then you should weatherstrip the area.
Not only does this keep drafts out, but it also protects your home from moisture, debris, dust, insects, and other issues.
You can also use caulk and foam to seal other cracks around your windows. If the parts of the window don’t need to move at all, an expanding foam sealant or caulk will do the trick to keep air and other unwanted stuff out.
For the moving parts, you’ll need weatherstripping, and for gaps bigger than a quarter of an inch, you’ll need the expanding sealant. For everything else, you can use caulk.
When your windows aren’t energy efficient, your home can be incredibly expensive to heat and cool. Keep drafts out without spending much money by sealing them with plastic window insulation kits.
It’s a good idea to install weatherstripping before you add the plastic. Once you install this window insulation, your windows will work as good as brand-new storm windows would.
Your water heater is likely in an unfinished area, like a basement or garage. In the winter, these areas get cold, which can make your water heater lose an incredible amount of heat.
Reheating this water gets very expensive. Lower your energy bills by covering the tank of your hot water heater. A water heater blanket is an inexpensive way to save a lot of money each winter.
If your water heater doesn’t have a tank, use insulation foam on the pipes instead to save on energy costs.
Anywhere a door from an unfinished area leads to the house, you can lose heat in the winter and cool air in the summer. The attic door is an often-forgotten area that needs insulation. Attic doors aren’t often designed for insulation, so you’ll need to insulate it yourself.
There are plenty of inexpensive attic door insulation covers on the market, so you can find one that works for your home. Remember to insulate and seal the rest of the attic, too, if you can.
Did you know that the switches and outlets on your outside walls create gaps where air can get in from outside?
Prevent drafts and loss of heat by sealing all these areas – it will make a big difference and won’t cost much.
There are many reasons to weatherize your home. You can get a lot done without spending a lot of money or time on the project, so why wait?
Once you weatherize your home, it’s also important to keep up with regular maintenance. For tips on maintaining your windows throughout the year, check out this post.
.jpg)
