Taking time to prepare your home will help ensure you avoid costly damages that can come from low temperatures, heavy snowfalls, and high winds. By performing these simple maintenance tips, you’ll be better able to ensure that winter stays out and you and your family stay safe and warm inside your home.

Here are the top five tips to get you to prepare you for winter:

1. Scheduled Maintenance for Your Heating System

Whether you have a heat pump, furnace, boiler or a wood stove, don’t wait for the temperature to drop to discover your system needs repairs. Schedule a furnace inspection now to ensure everything is working correctly, don’t wait until the cold winter months.

 2. Inspect all windows and doors for leaks

To prevent heat loss, make sure your windows and doors properly sealed. Check the weather-stripping around windows and door frames, and replace where necessary. Also, check for drafts and caulk both inside and out where appropriate, to keep the heat in and the cold out.

3. Trim your bushes and trees. 

Make sure any overgrown bushes or trees are trimmed back away from your house and electrical wires. This will help decrease your risk of property damage and power problems.

4. Pad exposed pipes in unheated areas.

This is an easy and inexpensive method to help prevent water damage resulting from a frozen pipe. Even the smallest of pipes can cause a lot of damage. Pipes in the basement, attic or crawl space are some examples of pipes you may want to cover.

 5. Check the Fire Alarm

Fires in the home occur most frequently in the wintertime. Be sure to replace the alarms every ten years and replace batteries regularly. Remember that you need working smoke alarms on every storey of your home and outside all sleeping areas.

These easy-to-do tips and hints will only take a few moments of your time, but they could help you get through potentially difficult bad -induced situations.