Winterizing your home is an important part of being a homeowner, especially if you live in a region that experiences snowfall and low temperatures during the winter season. Preparing your home for the winter is critical because it protects your home from damage that low temperatures and heavy snowfall are likely to cause. If you want to decrease the likelihood of experiencing damage to your home due to winter weather, this article has three tips that can help you prevent damage with these preventative winter weatherizing steps.

Protect Your Roof

One of the most important things you can do as a homeowner is to make sure that your roof is protected as much as possible in the winter. Damage caused by heavy snowfall is one of the most common ways that the home is damaged during the winter. In order to know when you should invest in snow removal, use a roof load calculator to determine if your roof is holding too much weight after a large snowfall. Removing that snow cansafe your roof and a lot of structural damage, which is very costly to repair.

Prepare Your Pipes

Another common issue that can cause damage to your home in the winter is frozen pipes. When temperatures in the Winter drop below a certain temperature for long periods of time inside of the house, frozen pipes can burst, causing water and sometimes even structural damage to the home. First you should check for any cracks or damage to the walls, floors, and ceilings that can leak cold air into the home. Next, you should consider protecting your pipes using insulation sleeves. This keeps your pipes just warm enough to avoid low dips which freeze and build up pressure if it’s cold for too long.

Insulate Your Windows & Doors

Insulating your home from the outside can be a great way to save money in the winter on your heating, as well as protecting your pipes from bursting and causing damage to the interior of your home. Make sure that your windows are leaking air from the outside by adding caulking to all the seals, as well as adding window insulation film. This can keep the heat from inside of your home leaking into the outside. It also prevents cold air from coming into the home as well. Adding weather stripping to the bottom of your doors will also act as an insulator and keep cold drafts from coming in through these cracks.