The winter always brings strong winds, snow, or snowy rains. Such severe weather with cold temperatures often serves as a reason for house damage and connected expenses. Moreover, living in a broken house during the winter can cause a serious hazard to health.
Happily, some precautions and preparations can help to avoid a disaster and make the house ready for nasty weather. Signature Water and Fire Restoration experts recommend performing the following steps to keep safe and protect the house from disruption.
Prevent Water Penetration
Ensure gutters are clean, debris and old leaves removed from them, and no other potential clogs exist. In such a way, any excessive melted snow water will easily drain with no chances to get inside the house. An additional danger is that under cold temperature clogs can turn into ice and create dams, which gather water and allow it to get inside the building.
During the process of gutters cleaning the attention should be paid to potential leaking places and misaligned pipes. One more thing to check is that downspouts for water carrying are sufficiently distanced from the house and don’t create additional risk of the basement flood.
Don’t Allow Pipes to Get Frozen
Cold temperatures make water extending, and, unfortunately, pipes cannot hold it resulting in dangerous bursts. Significant water losses, high numbers in utility bills, damaged pipes, and property damaged by water the results of inattentiveness. Pipes insulation of all pipelines, including lofts and garages can save from this type of disaster.
The solution is to wrap pipes with specific fiberglass insulation or pre-molded foam rubber sleeves, which can be purchased at DIY stores. An additional measure is to use heating tape during pipe wrapping.
Heat Insulation
The insulating loft is a low-valued investment, which can bring good savings in the long run. Disregarding the necessity to make it may lead to heat losses and heating systems overloading.
Prevent Draughts
Draughts is the reason for the 30% increase in energy consumption, as they lead to heat loss. The problem can be partially resolved by using a draught snake. You can either buy it or use rolled warm fabric, like for example a towel, in crevices, where draughts appear. A good idea is to fill these roles with sand, so fewer draughts will be let through and the draught snake will become heavy and heavier.
Another thing to consider in a fight with heat losses is window draughting.
Use the Thermostat Wisely
Many people use heating 24/7 which is not efficient. The good idea is to turn it into a saving mode during the time spent out of the home. In such a way you’ll achieve the economy on bills and will not pay for the service not actually used.
Professional Assistance from Signature Water and Fire Restoration
Signature Water and Fire Restoration is a leading service company in Illinois. The range of services provided by our team is extremely high and includes cleaning, restoration for individuals and businesses. Deep expertise, modern equipment, and client-oriented values allow doing the job quickly and with high quality.
In case you have additional questions and requests in preparing the house for the winter or have already face damage caused by nasty weather, Signature Water and Fire Restoration team ready to help 24/7. Contact us at +1-224-515-0100 for fighting fire or water damage, fixing burst pipes, mold removal job, or other services and we’ll make you wonder how easy and quickly the problem can be resolved.