Essential tips to keep your home running smoothly this winter

This year seems to be whizzing past at lightning speed, which means that before we know it winter will be upon us. As summer fades to a distant memory, it’s time to forget about how to keep cool, and let the kids’ constant nagging for ice cream be erased from your mind (until next summer, at least). Instead, it’s now time to turn your attention to getting cosy and looking forward to all the festive fun that winter brings. 

There’s no doubt that winter is a wonderful time of the year, especially if you’re not a fan of the heat. Spending more time at home, snuggled up on the sofa is always lovely, and everyone enjoys indulging in a mug of hot chocolate (or two!) in front of the fire. But to be able to relax and fully enjoy this cosy time of the year, it’s essential to ensure your home is ready for winter.

Understanding the different challenges that can arise over the winter and create problems in your home is the first step towards preventing them from happening. So, what do you need to do to keep trouble at bay this winter? What jobs do you need to tackle? Keep reading to discover tips that will help keep your home running smoothly this winter.

Schedule a heating service

If there’s one time of year that your hot water and heating need to work, it’s during the winter. Having a warm home isn’t something you should leave to chance. Instead, it’s vital to be proactive and double check that your heating is in good working order before the temperatures drop. To keep your home cosy throughout the winter, it’s wise to book your heating system in for a service now. Leave it too late, and your heating system could breakdown during the busiest time of the year for heating engineers, and you could be left with a long wait before it’s up and running again.

Scheduling a service of your heating system will mean you can get any potential issues sorted out fast before it escalates into a bigger and more expensive problem.

Inspect your roof

Few of us spend much time standing in our gardens staring up at the roof of our homes. However, with winter fast-approaching you may want to start. Checking that your roof is in good working order is essential at this time of the year. But unless you are a roofing expert, it’s safer to avoid climbing up onto the roof for a closer look. Instead, you should be able to use some more conservative methods to check the condition of your roof. 

Looking up at your roof from ground level can be a really helpful way to spot any missing tiles or tiles that look broken. It’s also wise to check along the ground in your garden to see if there are any broken pieces of tiles, especially the day after a stormy night. 

As the roof of your home is its main defence against the elements, it’s subjected to a whole host of challenging conditions throughout the year. But the winter is likely to be the time when you notice the biggest problems.

A broken roof tile might not sound like a big deal. However, when your roof is hit by rain, wind or snow throughout the winter, a broken roof tile can soon become a huge problem. If moisture is able to continuously drip through the gap caused by the missing or broken tile, the joists of your roof may start to rot, you may notice damp patches start to form on your ceiling, and items you store in your attic may begin to grow mould. You may also notice that your home is using more energy to stay warm, as you will be losing heat through your roof. 

To avoid all these problems this winter it’s a good idea to call out the professionals for a proper roof inspection if you spot any signs of damage to your roof. 

Prep your garden

Is your garden ready for everything that winter could possibly throw at it? If not, now is the time to get it prepared for the change in seasons. Your home’s outside space can take quite the battering throughout the winter. So, preparing your garden in anticipation of the challenging weather conditions is vital. 

Trimming back any overhanging branches and shrubs is a helpful place to get started with your winter garden preparations. This means that if strong winds strike, the branches are less likely to fall down and cause damage to your house.

It’s also a good idea to pack away any garden furniture you may have. Storing your garden furniture in your shed or garage, or simply covering it over with a tarpaulin for the winter will help to protect it from the elements. Packing the furniture away should help protect it from going rusty or rotting during the winter weather.

Another outdoor job to tackle before winter arrives is to deal with all the fallen leaves and other debris that can mount up in your garden during the autumnal weather. Leaves and fallen pieces of moss can quickly clog up your outside drains. They can also create big problems for your home’s guttering. Your gutters won’t be able to effectively move rain water away from your roof and through the downpipe if they are completely clogged with leaves, moss, twigs and other debris. This means that when winter arrives and temperatures drop, the water trapped in your guttering could freeze. The weight of this ice and debris in your gutters can pull them away from your house causing water to run straight down your walls. If this isn’t dealt with fast, it can cause issues such as damp to form in your home. So, keeping your gutters clear could save you a lot of hassle.

Keep pests out

We may like to get cosy indoors when the cold weather hits, and us humans aren’t the only ones. Unfortunately, some less than welcome visitors can attempt to enter our home through the winter in search of somewhere to shelter from the cold. 

Pests such as mice and rats can try to get inside your home by whatever means needed to enjoy the warmth. No one wants to find unwanted rodents taking up residence in their house. So, it’s vital to be alert to signs that they have invaded your space. This could include the strong smell of urine, sounds of scurrying on your ceilings or in your wall cavities, and droppings around your home. These signs may be particularly obvious in your loft space or basement (if you have one).

Taking action to keep pests away from your home before the colder weather arrives is wise. You can do this by ensuring that you close off any access points that a rodent could slip through and keep your outside areas free from any food debris, such as dropped bird seed, etc. If you do spot rodents on your property, it’s best to act fast before they attempt to enter your home. There are many resources available to familiarize you with how to get rid of mice to help you get prepared. 

Prevent draughts

The cold weather will creep into your home in any way it can during the winter. It’s hard to relax and enjoy spending time at home when your rooms feel draughty. Taking action now is an excellent way to keep draughts out of your home, and it’s pretty easy to do. All you need is some caulk with a caulking gun, and you will be able to quickly fill in any gaps that may be making your home colder. Some DIY shops even sell window insulation kits, so if you think that caulk alone won’t help, you could try using one of these. 

If it feels like draughts are travelling from one room into others, you could try to block it the old-fashioned way by putting a draught excluder in front of the door to stop the cold air travelling underneath it and into other rooms.

Improving your home’s insulation is an excellent way to keep draughts out, while also improving its energy efficiency. Loft insulation and cavity wall insulation are two options to consider. Once you’ve improved your home’s insulation, you should find that it stays much warmer, and you should use less power to keep it that way. As significant amounts of heat are no longer being lost through your walls and roof, your heating system doesn’t need to work as hard to maintain a constant temperature in your home. This means you can keep your home warm without needing to whack the thermostat up to its highest setting.

This list may sound pretty long, but most of the steps are pretty quick and easy to perform. Spending just a little time preparing your home for the new season could save you a lot of time and hassle when winter conditions arrive.