There’s so much to love about spending the Canadian winter snug at home – cozying up by the fireplace, building snow forts in the backyard, and enjoying movies. However, one thing you probably don’t love is filing a home insurance claim. To ensure you can relish another snow-filled season at home without concerns, follow these tips to get your home winter-ready.
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Maintain Your Exterior: Ensuring your home’s exterior is well-kept is crucial when preparing for winter. Before frigid temperatures become the norm, clear your eaves of leaves and debris to prevent ice dams. Drain and shut off your exterior water lines to prevent damage from frozen and burst pipes. Don’t forget to inspect the weatherstripping around your doors and windows to fix any cracks or openings, which helps prevent heat loss, benefiting both your utility bill and your home’s integrity.
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Conduct an Interior Safety Check: Interior fire safety and air quality are important year-round, but adding a checkup to your winter-prep list ensures everything is in top-notch condition. Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to ensure they’re working and note their expiry dates. Fire extinguishers should be in good working order and easily accessible. If you don’t have them, consider adding them to your shopping list. Familiarize yourself and your family with how to use them properly. For added safety, consider using a long-term radon test kit and detector to monitor potential exposure to radon, a cancer-causing gas created as uranium breaks down. Install the detector in the lowest level of your home and monitor it regularly.
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Inspect Your Heating Appliances: With winter approaching and cold temperatures on the horizon, routine checks and maintenance for your furnace are essential to ensure it operates efficiently and safely, keeping you warm throughout the season. Conduct a basic DIY inspection by ensuring the area around the furnace is clear, checking pipes and fittings for deterioration, and replacing filters according to the manufacturer’s schedule. It’s also recommended to have an annual inspection and cleaning by a qualified service technician. If you have wood-burning heating appliances and fireplaces, hire a certified chimney inspector to examine and clean them, reducing the risk of chimney-related fires.
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Bonus: To access extra tips, kindly view our video here. ➡️ Prepare Your Home This Winter
By following these steps, you can prepare your home for winter, minimize risks, and enjoy a worry-free season without the hassle of insurance claims. For more tips on year-round home protection, visit cooperators.ca
