Things In Your Home To Winterize
Having your furnace and water heater checked over is a good idea. If a thermocouple or ignitor switch goes out in the middle of the winter, you may be without heat or hot water for a long time, depending on how busy your maintenance specialist is. Make sure you have a new furnace filter in your furnace every month to three months, depending on what kind of filter you purchased. If you are going on an extended vacation, you should winterize your toilet and plumbing to ensure you don’t have broken pipes and disasters when you return home. Ensure the weather stripping around doors and windows is in good shape and that older windows are caulked to keep out the elements from rotting boards and ruining the walls in your home from ice melting. Try to remove snow from your roof with a snow rake and get rid of ice dams. Ice dams can cause a lot of damage. Most new roofs have a product that lays under the shingles and prevents ice dams. Ice dams damage your gutters and the boards on the bottom of the roof, and then water can leak into your home, causing significant damage.
Winterize All of Your Vehicles
Ensure your battery maintains a good charge, or you may be stranded on a cold, dark, wintery night. Check the antifreeze in any vehicle with a motor and radiator. If it is not at a low-temperature rating, you could end up with a frozen engine block that could cost thousands of dollars to fix or replace. Ensure your engine and transmission oil are good and not a milky color, which means it has some water that will cause damage. Check to make sure the 4-wheel drive mechanism is greased and working freely. Have sand, an emergency kit in all your vehicles, and a shovel and red flag to tie up high on your car if you get stranded on the road in the winter. Without a red flag tied up high, the snow plow could cause significant damage to your vehicle when clearing the road, as he will not know it is not just a snowdrift.
Winterize Yourself
When working outdoors, have waterproof snow boots, mittens, and heavy socks so your feet do not freeze while working outdoors in the elements to move snow. I have on a heavy winter coat with a head covering where only my eyes are exposed. I start by moving the snow away from the house with a shovel or walk behind a snow blower, and then I work at the rest of the yard with a heated truck and blade to get rid of the rest of the snow. I put the pickup truck in four-wheel drive and can plow through most drifts unless they are solid as a rock.
Winterize Buildings For Your Outdoor Pets
Put insulation in any pet building you build, such as a heater, a heated water dish, and plenty of heated small buildings that only use electricity when they sense a pet’s weight. Ensure your pets have a warm and draft-free place for a safe winter for your beloved pets. Ensure all of your pets’ shots are up to date. Every creature, great and small, deserves a warm place to rest and sleep.
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