With Fall in full swing and the Colorado cold setting in, you’ll want to do some chores to prepare your home for a stress-free winter. Just a few simple but important maintenance checks can help you avoid potentially expensive disasters when the single digits hit.
#1 Check Your Pipes
A good portion of Western Slope homes have some type of irrigation system, whether it is fed via ditch water or domestic water. It is a wise practice to set a yearly calendar reminder to blow out any irrigation lines once the ditch water is turned off for the year. There are fairly inexpensive services that will perform this maintenance for you so that your pipes don’t freeze and burst. You will also want to shut off the valve for your outdoor spigots and run any excess water out, protect the hose bibs with an insulated cover, and disconnect and drain any hoses, storing them in your garage or storage shed. Any exposed outdoor pipes should also be wrapped with an insulated cover, and, as an extra measure, use heat tape to keep them from becoming brittle in the cold.
#2 Maintain Your Heating System
Most HVAC installers provide a low-cost or even free winter maintenance tune-up to clean filters, check for leaks, and perform checks to ensure your heating system is in good working order. This simple step can often prevent costly emergency calls and even lower your heating bill when your system runs efficiently.
#3 Check That Chimney
A sometimes overlooked item is cleaning your chimney before the first use in the Fall. Since a good portion of fireplaces in Colorado are natural gas, people often don’t think they need any maintenance. With these systems, there can still be a small amount of soot in the chimney as well as birds or other critters that may have taken up residence over the summer. And, of course, wood-burning stoves will definitely need the creosote cleaned out to avoid the unpleasant odor and prevent chimney fires.
#4 Clean The Gutters
Even if you don’t have a ton of trees around your house, the windy summer Montrose, Colorado had can still blow debris into your gutters. It’s a good practice to clean any leaves, twigs, or mud from your gutters to ensure efficient drainage when the snow falls. Running water through the gutters can show any leaks that can be fixed with some inexpensive caulking. Now is also a good time to install heat tape to keep the gutters from freezing up.
#5 Yard Maintenance
While leaves on the ground provide insulation for your plants and turn into a healthy mulch, it is a good idea to pull that brush away from the foundation of your house to prevent mildew or mold. For the yard, a good mulching blade on your lawnmower can create a natural mulch that is beneficial to your lawn. For tree branches and larger brush piles, consider burning them and using the ash as a mulch for your less-traveled areas. Make sure to check local burn bans and never leave a fire unattended.
Although there are many more minor maintenance tasks that can be performed when fall hits, these five tips can go a long way to ensuring your wintered home is warm and free of costly hazards.
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Copyright 2021 Atha Team at Keller Williams Colorado West Realty, LLC. If you have a brokerage relationship with another agency, this is not intended as a solicitation. Equal opportunity housing provider. Each office is independently owned and operated. For sale by owner data not included in research findings. Sales data reflects sales from homes not limited to the Atha Team LLC. This information was gathered from Keller Williams, The National Association of Realtor, CoreLogic data analysis firm, Montrose Association of Realtors, and the Mortgage Brokers Association. This data is considered accurate, but is not guaranteed. All Rights Reserved.