Helpful Tips to Prepare Your Home Before a Winter Storm

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Winter storms can be just as devastating as any hurricane or flood that happens during the summer. Due to the extreme cold, they can expose you to, some people consider them much worse. If you live in an area that is prone to blizzards, ice storms, or other cold weather hazards, you need to be prepared. Here are some tactics you can use to stay safe.

Use Tarps to Keep Your Property Safe

A selection of waterproof tarps will be an ideal addition to keep your property safe from winter storms. You can use these handy tarps to safeguard lawn furniture, sheds, barbecue equipment, boats, and other items. They work well with objects that are too heavy to be brought indoors.

Helpful Tips to Prepare Your Home Before a Winter Storm

These tarps come in a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and styles. You can use tarps that are made of canvas, vinyl, or polyester. If you live in a region that gets a lot of rain, sleet, ice, snow, or heavy winds during the winter, these tarps will be a necessity. The more of them you have to cover up your outdoor belongings, the safer you can keep them.

Seal and Weatherstrip Your Windows and Doors

The next major detail to take care of will be to make sure that all of your doors and windows are properly sealed. Go over them with caulk in order to seal up any cracks that may exist. This will keep the wind from barreling through your home, freezing you and your loved ones while doing severe damage. High winds can even cause your roof to lift off.

Sealing up the cracks in your home and garage windows as well as all of your doors will save you money. Your HVAC system won’t have to wear itself out trying to heat the home while competing with frigid blasts of air coming in from the outside. This will result in less energy use. The reward for sealing your doors comes when you get a low utility bill.

Insulate All of Your Home and Attic Walls

When it comes to preparing for a winter storm, you need to be proactive. If the walls in your home are feeling a little thin, now is the time to shore them up. You can buy low-cost insulation, such as fiberglass, from a local vendor in order to weatherproof your walls. This should cover all of the rooms in your home, plus your attic if you have one.

Putting some extra insulation in your attic will pay major dividends during the winter season. Doing so will put a stop to heat loss due to natural convection. It can also block off excess winds from outside. This can result in a savings of energy that will translate into a major windfall when it comes time to pay your monthly utility bill.

Make Sure to Inspect Your Chimney

Perhaps the last detail to keep in mind is to make sure your chimney is working in good order. This will be all the more crucial if you live in an older home that still has a working fireplace. You can contact your local fire department in order to set up a safety inspection. This will give you access to all of the very best fireplace safety tips.

You should also install a smoke detector and a battery-operated carbon monoxide detector near the area. This will be your safety alert in case a spark from the fireplace leads to a potential hazard. Make sure to test these safety devices on a monthly basis. You should also replace the batteries twice a year.

If you are still worried about potential hazards from a live fireplace, you should keep a fire extinguisher nearby. Dry-chemical extinguishers work best in this situation.

Winter Safety is a Must for Your Home

The more you do to safeguard your home during the winter, the more protection it will be able to enjoy. You don’t have to spend a million bucks to keep your home secure during these cold winter months. You just need to be proactive in the measures you take to keep wind, rain, and snow outside where it belongs. These simple tactics will help you do so.

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