Prepping Your Home for Winter on Long Island

Getting yourself ready for winter is a snap. Gloves? Check! Scarf? Right here. Winter Coat. Done! But readying your home for a long, snowy, cold season is another story. Making sure you prep your home to not only be ready for winter but also to prevent possible damage too! I've got the tips to help you.

Checklist to Prep for Winter Weather

Check your home's heating and air conditioning system

Its always best to get your heating ( and cooling ) system checked before each season of use. Contact your local HVAC and schedule a maintenance call sometime in early October.

Seal your masonry and hard surfaces

If you have a concrete outdoor surfaces make sure they are protected as well. Apply a concrete sealer annually to all of your flat exterior concrete surfaces. All concrete flatwork eventually develops cracks. Take the time to inspect your concrete and fill in any cracks before you apply sealer so that water cannot get in and freeze over the winter.

Check your drainage.

Make sure the soil around your foundation hasn’t settled, creating areas for water to accumulate at your foundation. Then go around and check your rain gutter downspouts. Make sure water is getting moved away from the home. If needed add extenders to your downspouts to get the water further away from the foundation of your home. Saturated soil around a foundation can create problems as it freezes and thaws throughout the winter months.

Clean your gutters

Once the leaves are pretty much off the trees, it’s time to clean those gutters. When your gutters back up, they overflow, and when they overflow, that water runs down your home, speeding up the deterioration of your exterior. It can also lead to deterioration of your foundation, water infiltration in the basement and to settling under your concrete porches and walks, which creates all kinds of problems.

Clean your chimney and order firewood.

Have your fireplace cleaned and inspected before you start building those cozy fires in the next couple of months. A good chimney sweep company will make sure the fireplace is safe to use, and it can also identify maintenance problems. It is also a great time to order that load of firewood so you are not scrambling to find some when winter arrives. Stack the wood in a location away from the house and keep it covered to prevent saturating it.

Test your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors

Winter is the time most house fires happen. It’s the time of year when we’re blasting the furnace and building fires. We are also much more likely to have our home closed up tight, so carbon monoxide is a much bigger hazard. Check all of your smoke detectors to make sure they are working and that they have good batteries. If your home is not equipped with carbon monoxide detectors, consider getting one A lot of smoke detectors also double as carbon monoxide detectors too, I use the NEST one that alerts you on your phone also if you are not home. An HVAC inspection will also ensure your furnace and water heater are properly vented, which is the most likely source of carbon monoxide.

Shut down the pool and the sprinkler system and drain outside faucets

Make sure your pool is properly shut down and prepare the system for winter. I think it’s worth the costs of getting an expert to inspect and shut down the system, even if you’re a do-it-yourselfer the rest of the year. Fall is a good time to get pool work done if a problem is discovered. Pool contractors tend to get busy in the spring.

Make sure your sprinkler system is properly shut down for the season. Most sprinkler systems require the lines to be blown out. There are companies who can come do this for you and shut down your system for the winter, usually inexpensive and worth having a professional do it for you.

Next, your outside water faucet(s). It will freeze over the winter, and if not drained out it can cause cracking and damage to inside lines as well, as well as possible flooding. You can simply shut off the water valve to your outside spigot, then go outside and open the exterior spigot valve and let the water drain out of the line. You don’t have to get every drop out. Now if the water in there freezes, it has plenty of room to expand without breaking pipes or seals. Leave the water shut off to the faucet until you need to use the hose next spring.

Check your trees

Before all of the leaves fall, take a look at your trees and make sure they’re still healthy, especially trees that could fall on your home or a neighbor’s home. Don’t think a dying tree will be obvious. Sometimes you really won’t notice, especially if you have a lot of trees. At one of my properties, I noticed a couple of dead trees, and I had them cut down. Later, a neighbor pointed out a tree that was dead that I never noticed. Fall isn’t a good time to trim your trees, but if there are branches up against your house, it’s a good idea to trim them away before winter so you don’t have ice-coated branches against your siding or windows.

Make sure your attic doesn’t become a home to animals!

It’s going to get cold out and your attic is the perfect winter home for squirrels and birds. These critters can cause a lot of damage and potentially some heath problems. Make sure your trees are trimmed well away from the house, and make sure your gable vents are intact. It’s a good idea to tack a screen up behind your gable vent just in case. Also walk around your home and look up at your soffit and fascia. Make sure there are no holes that will allow birds to get in.

Prep your yard care equipment for winter storage

Before you put your lawn equipment away for the season, drain the gas. Gas goes bad, and come springtime old gas can gunk up your fuel filters and make your equipment run sickly. You can also put a fuel stabilizer into the gas if you want to keep it on hand.

If you used your pressure washer this year, then make sure the gas is out of that as well. Run some pump-protecting antifreeze through the system. There is a special product just for this. All this equipment is expensive; take the time to protect it.

Cover or store your patio furniture

If you don’t have four season outdoor furniture make sure you get it wrapped or stored away for the winter. Make sure you wait until a clear, warm day to cover it so you don’t trap moisture on it. There are local companies who will come to you who will shrink wrap your furniture on the spot, much like they do to over winter boats!

Prep for snow removal

This could possibly be the most important task, even if it snows once or ten times! pull out your snowblower and fire it up before any storms arrive. Make sure it’s ready for that snowy morning. If it’s not, then get it repaired now. Also take inventory of your salt and shovel situation. Once the cold weather really drops, I like to position these things in the front of the garage or on the porch prior to a storm so they are accessible right away. If you don’t shovel or plow, make sure to call your plow person and confirm that you are on their list for when storms do come and that they are still offering this service.

Selling your home on Long Island

Did this list make you shiver with the thought of having to go through another winter? Interested in selling your home on Long Island and moving to a warmer home? Get in touch with Jessica Sullivan Real Estate today.