Fall Forward - Part 2: Winter Proofing your Home

Hope everyone enjoyed the official start of Fall. The recent cool nights (and the Christmas decorations some local stores already have on display!) remind us that Winter is on the way. Now, is a great time to think about ways to weatherproof your home. Investing a little money now will make your home more comfortable when old man Winter comes knocking and can also save lots of money on your heating bills.

Last week, we were helping one of our clients in an older home come up with an action plan for winter. One of the first things we noticed was that that their upper window sashes had slid down and inch or so, instead of staying up where they were designed to be. This was an easy fix for our handyman, and while there, he sealed a few gaps around window frames with caulking and replaced the cracked weatherstripping around their doors. He also inspected their basement and applied fresh mortar to a couple of small cracks.

Finally, he took a look in their attic and found that they had adequate R-30 insulation in most areas. However, he did see a spot that had no insulation at all. It was in an area that we believe had previously been under a roof leak, as there was a 5 gallon bucket in the middle of the area that had no insulation. Since our client had just gotten a new roof, our handyman simply added some new insulation to that spot. Further, since our client didn't want that bucket, we added it to our growing collection of things in our shop that we might need one day. Buckets are one thing, but I don't think we will ever find a home for that 19" Zenith television, circa 1985, that yours truly couldn't give away and didn't want to throw in the dumpster.

Did you know that household fires are more common in the winter? Fall is the perfect time for replacing batteries in all of your fire alarms.

Bill Boyd