Winterize your Home
Halloween has come and gone and Thanksgiving isn’t far away. If you live in Southern California, it can only mean one thing. The arrival of Manure Season. If you’ve never lived in Los Angeles, you might not realize that we too have seasons. Not the seasons that Easterners are used to, but they are seasons nevertheless. One of the more distinctive seasons (along with Fire Season, June Gloom, Santa Anas and February Rains and RoseBowl Summer - a week of gorgeous weather every New Years) comes every November when hundreds of thousands of gardeners spread millions of pounds of steer manure on lawns across SoCal. For three weeks every fall, Iowa has nothing on California.
For the rest of the country facing cold winters, now is a prudent time to start winterizing your home.
Here are a few tips on getting your home ready for winter:
Furnace Inspection
Change your furnace filter, and remove anything flamable near your furnace.
Call a heating and cooling pro to inspect your ducts and your furnace.
Put in a digital, programmable thermostat.
Bleed your radiator if you have hot water heating.
Now might be a good time to look into a more modern, efficient furnace and heating system.
Check your Fireplace.
Here in Los Angeles, part of our smog prevention program outlaws the installation of new wood burning fireplaces, and severly restricts burning wood even in old classic brick chimney fireplaces. For the rest of the country, make sure the chimney has a proper screen or cap to keep out rodents and birds and to keep sparks from flying out and onto your roof. If your hasn’t been cleaned for a while, call a chimney sweep to remove soot and creosote. Check your damper for proper opening and closing, do a quick visual inspection of the chimney itself looking for cracks or problems with your mortar. Stock up with wood and you re ready to go.
Doors and Windows and Exterior Walls
Look for cracks, crevices and opening. Make sure your vent screens are well sealed. You would be amazed at how small a hole can provide a warm living space to a cold woodland creature or stray cat. We’ve had cats and possums try to set up homesteads under our house.
Keep in the warmth and keep out the cold with weatherstripping and caulk around doors and window jams. Protect your wooden doors by sanding, and painting or revarnishing any exposed surfaces. The front door on my hilltop colonial faces towards the ocean and goes from shiny to ratty in a matter of months from the alternating sun and rain of a single year. Switch summer screens with glass replacements or install your storm windows.
Inspect your Roof, Gutters & Downspouts
Now is the time to check flashing so water can’t seep in under your roof tiles. Flashing is all of the little steel sheets around your roof’s exhaust pipes and roof edges. Wind can push rain into places you never imagined and rot out your roof or puddle on your floors in just one season. Replace worn roof shingles or tiles, clean your gutters, wash out your downspouts and you are ready to go.
Check Foundations
Rake away all debris and plants from the foundation and the footings of your house
Make sure that all downspouts drain away from the house. When I bought my home, I discovered, in the middle of a major rainstorm that the downspouts on one side of the house drained into a courtyard sloped towards the house. When I discovered a lake under the house, I understood why the basement storeroom had been so mildewy when I bought the house. You should seal up any vents or entry points to keep small animals from crawling under the house. Inspect sills and exterior wood surfaces for dry rot or pest infestation. Don’t forget to close any crawlspace doors. Remember,critters are also looking for a warm winter home.
Don’t let your plumbing freeze
Locate your water main so you can shut off the water in an emergency. Drain garden hoses, air conditioner pipes, and insulate any exposed water pipes that might freeze in cold weather.
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To add to the furnace filter point, remember if you have central AC, it likely “shares” the furnace filter, and will need monitored and changed regularly year-round.
You are right. In both of my homes I’ve had to change my filter both summer and winter. I live in a smoggy city and the filter is running year round. In my old house it was easy, a vent in the ceiling in the center hall. one screwdriver, two screws. stick in a standard filter and tighten up the screws. maybe 3 minutes.
my new house is a bit more annoying. two filters (one for the upstairs HVAC system, one for the downstairs. both are in a crawlspace under the house and behind our walkin basement.
havent changed those yet. but will soon.