While we’re lucky to have fairly mild winters in Dallas and Fort Worth compared to states up north, it’s still important to prepare your home for the winter by doing some basic maintenance. This is especially important during a wet, rainy fall and if more frequent winter ice storms are predicted, as they are this year. Here are some tips from our real estate team to keep your home cozy and warm this winter.
Clear Out Your Gutters Regularly
One of the biggest issues in fall home maintenance is dealing with the leaves. When these build up in the gutters, they block them up and weigh them down, so when the rain or snow arrives, the gutters flood or break. Flooded gutters are more than unsightly – they can lead to damage to your roof and siding too. A good cleaning hack is to get a plastic spatula to scrape out the gutters. You can trim them to fit your gutter contours exactly and they don’t scratch the gutter either – a cheap and cheerful solution that works really well! If you feel like splashing out and avoiding this rather tiring job, you can get a gutter-cleaning robot. They’re great for multi-story homes, if you are older or have health problems, or if you’re afraid of heights.
While you’re cleaning your gutters, take a look at the condition of your roof. Now’s the best time to replace missing shingles and make repairs so your home doesn’t suffer from damaging leaks, drafts and worse.
Check Your Safety Detectors
Fall is when we start closing up our homes and relying on furnaces and home heating systems, so it’s especially important that smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are in good working order. Replace all the batteries for peace of mind and run a test according to the manufacturer guidelines. As a rule of thumb, your smoke detectors should be replaced after 10 years, while carbon monoxide detectors should be replaced after 6 years. They should be labeled with a manufacturer’s expiration date.
Service Your Home Heating System
An annual service is just as important for your home heating system as it is for your vehicle, setting up your furnace or boiler to make sure it’s working as safely and efficiently as possible – supporting your health and saving you money on your home heating bill. Filters should be cleaned or replaced, safety systems checked, and ducts cleaned.
If you have a fireplace, then now’s the time to have your chimney inspected and cleaned as well as tested to ensure the flue has a tight, effective seal. You should also start stocking up for wood for fires, as demand will increase significantly in the winter – along with prices!
If you have hot water radiators, then now’s also the time to bleed them. This is the process of removing air that gets trapped in the system, so the radiators can heat evenly and effectively. This is an easy DIY job – just look for a small valve at the top of your radiator and open it with the radiator key (or a ¼ inch flat screwdriver) and slowly turn the valve counter-clockwise until water starts dripping out. Then tighten the valve and repeat on your other radiators.
Ceiling fans can also help with home heating. Change the direction of the fan so that it creates an upward draft, as this helps distribute warm air evenly throughout your home.
Install Weatherstripping
Even though our winters are pretty mild, we still rely heavily on home heating – and there’s no point in heating your home when all that warmth immediately escapes! All you’ll be doing is paying huge energy bills. Weatherstripping will block all those little gaps where heat escapes – apply it around windows and doors and add door sweeps to the base of drafty doors and your wallet will thank you!
Trim Your Trees and Shrubs
If you have a lot of trees and shrubs on your property, it’s a good idea to call in a local arborist in fall to do a comprehensive check on them. It’s the perfect time of year to trim trees, cut out dead limbs, detect early signs of disease and treat them effectively before they spread. This will ensure your yard is ready to spring back and look beautiful as soon as the warm weather arrives, as well as preventing damage from falling limbs in the upcoming winter storms.
If you love having a healthy lawn in the spring, fall is also the perfect time to prepare your backyard. Start by aerating the soil – it relieves compaction and gives the roots of the grass space to grow and access water and nutrients. It’s an easy DIY job and you can rent a lawn aerator at almost any equipment rental store. Keep watering your lawn regularly until the first freeze sets in, and fertilize it with a 4-1-2 content around 3 weeks before the freeze sets in. You’ll see a fantastic growth spurt in the spring!
Sell Your Home in Dallas or Fort Worth Today – We Buy Homes in Any Condition for Cash
The Shiny Key Properties team is a leading property agency in the Dallas and Fort Worth area, specializing in cash for houses. If you’re interested in selling your home quickly or want to buy a new home in the area, contact us today. We can make you a no-obligation, market-related cash offer on your property today.