7 Tips to Prepare Your Bend Home For This Year's Upcoming Winter

Summer is out, and Fall is officially here! Everybody knows winter means holidays. Who doesn’t love holidays, right? Except for the winter storm and super cold climate, so better prepare your bend home this winter.

It’s never too early to start preparing for winter. In fact, the earlier you start getting ready, the more prepared you and your family will be to get through any winter storms heading your way.

Whether you are selling your home for sale or not, keeping it winter-ready would benefit you and your family the most.

But how will you ensure that your home is winter-ready? Here are 7 tips to prepare your home for the cold and sweater-kind-of-weather:

#1 – Shear plants

Snow can build up on branches and potentially cause them to break so you better keep an eye on trees surrounding or near your home. Strategic pruning of bushes, shrubs, and trees can help protect your home from falling branches and keep your greenery looking healthy come springtime.

#2 – Clean out gutters

If gutters are clogged with leaves, the debris can freeze and could get under shingles and damage the roof. Get on your work gloves, use a tall ladder, and scoop out the debris so water can drain. Want to speed things up? A leaf blower could go in handy but it sure needs your full hands to finish the job so you may need to have a buddy with you to help you in doing the job. Don’t want to do the job yourself? You could always call a handyman in your area. It typically takes about two hours to finish the cleaning, but that still depends on how big your home is.

#3 – Lubricate door locks

If you live in a super-cold climate city like Bend, this tip is what you need! Just spray a little powdered-graphite lubricant into the door locks and then turn the key in the lock. The powder lubricates the pins inside the lock to prevent sticking. Freezing door locks no more!

#4 – Clean Fireplace

“Built-up creosote and soot can ignite,” says Paul Sullivan of the National Association of Home Builders Remodelers. With this in mind, you must have your fireplace professionally cleaned and inspected by a certified chimney sweep, but that depends on what type of fireplace you use at home. If you use a wood-burning fireplace more than six times a year, an annual inspection is a must. But if you do have a gas one or you almost never use your fireplace, an inspection every three years is sufficient.

#5 – Check and drain all exterior faucets

Undrained water in pipes can freeze, and as the ice expands, it could cause the pipes to burst. Disconnecting all garden hoses and draining the water that remains in faucets will do the work.

#6 – Have your furnace checked

Before or at the beginning of winter, have your furnace checked by an HVAC contractor to make sure it is working safe and efficiently. To keep it running well, inspect and replace the filter monthly when it turns brown or black.

#7 – Restock Winter Essentials

Don’t wait for a winter storm to restock cold-weather essentials, such as salt or ice melt. Having these ahead of time would make your winter experience a lot better and you wouldn’t have to rush to the store only to find that they’re sold out already.

Bottom Line

Having your home winter-ready would save you tons of time, effort, and of course, money if ever a winter storm would come. These tips will also help you in keeping your home sturdy as the winter season goes.

If eventually, you’ll think of selling your home, these winter tips will come in handy to keep your home in perfect condition to put it on the market. When that time comes, let us know so we could help you out through the home selling process.