As the temperature drops by the day, it’s safe to say that summer is over. Is your home prepared to face the winter? This fall, there are a few small, but simple steps that you can take to shield your house from the worst that winter has to offer. With just a few hours of work that can be done over a long weekend, you can take a proactive approach to get through the season. The changing season can be especially brutal in the Midwest. With a little help from a local contractor like Aloha Construction, you will be set in no time.
Why Its Essential to Prepare Your Home for the Winter
Like many people, you may not have ever taken steps to prepare your home for the winter before and may not see the point of doing so. That may appear to be the case, but the reality is that the ravages of winter including high winds, cold temperatures, ice, sleet, and snow take their toll and can negatively impact the comfort, appearance and structural integrity of your home. It’s crucial to prepare your home for the winter because it can help to upkeep maintenance, prevent structural damage, and save energy.
Maintenance isn’t just about preventing breakdowns; it’s also about keeping equipment running efficiently and effectively. By taking the time to perform maintenance on your home before winter hits, you will protect the systems that keep everyone happy and comfortable—and you can ward off pricey repairs and replacements.
Taking the steps to prepare your home for the colder seasons can prevent structural damage. All too often, people hunker down for the winter without giving any thought as to how their homes will endure extreme winter weather. As a result, small issues go unnoticed and are able to spiral out of control. A loose board on a deck, for example, can be blown off by high winds and damage siding or other components. Clogged gutters can cause water to back up into shingles and eaves, where it will freeze and thaw repeatedly to potentially cause expensive damage to the roof.
It can help save energy. Taking the time to look over your home and to perform a few small repairs and pieces of maintenance will pay off in the form of saved energy—and that means saved money too. That’s because you will be taking steps to keep equipment functioning optimally, which helps to maintain its energy efficiency, and you will be performing maintenance that ensures that your home is well insulated.
With winter rapidly approaching, it may be tempting to just put off any work or maintenance until the spring. However, completing the following eight steps doesn’t take very long, and it can make a huge difference when it comes to comfort, energy efficiency and structural quality of your home. The team at Aloha Construction, which has offices in Lake Zurich and Bloomington, IL, has put together a list of eight of the most important steps that you can follow to get your home ready for winter:
1. Clean Your Gutters
Since it doesn’t tend to rain very much in Illinois during the winter, it’s easy to assume that you shouldn’t have to worry about the condition of the gutters on your home leading up to the season. However, they are every bit as integral to the protection of the structural integrity of the home during the winter as they are in the summer. If you go into the winter with gutters that are dirty and clogged with debris, snow that is on the roof and melts in the sun may freezer again before it is able to drain. It can also be forced up under the shingles and into the eaves, where it can cause extensive damage to the roof decking. If allowed to accumulate, ice in clogged gutters can cause them to bend or even to pull away from the house.
Ideally, you should clean your gutters in mid-fall when it is still relatively warm and dry. Test them after cleaning them to confirm that they are working properly, which means that they are diverting and draining water away from the roof, through downspouts and to the ground away from the house. If the gutters on your home have seen better days, an experienced contractor like Aloha Construction of Lake Zurich can help. They offer a comprehensive array of options, including Gutter Guards, K-style seamless aluminum gutters, oversized gutters and more, and financing is available. You can rest assured of top-notch installation because every Aloha employee undergoes rigorous training in home improvement techniques.
2. Prune All Your Trees and Bushes Outside
It may seem like the siding on your home is indestructible, but nothing could be further from the truth—and that’s true even if you have invested in the very best siding on the market. One of the most common causes of siding damage occurs when branches from trees and other vegetation are blown around and hit a house. Unpruned trees can cause a lot more damage than you probably think, including putting big dents in aluminum siding, causing scrapes in vinyl and other types of siding and even prying pieces of siding away from the home, which typically requires a very involved repair or replacement.
Before winter gets into full swing, inspect all of the foliage around your house. If you find trees or bushes that are growing too close to the house, prune their branches until there is no longer a risk of damage. Remember that contractors like Aloha Construction are available to perform repairs to all kinds of siding, and they also perform siding installation in Lake Zurich, Bloomington and throughout Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. Through the years, the company has completed more than 18,000 projects, and they can help you improve the appearance, comfort and energy efficiency of your home with new siding.
3. Disconnect Hoses from Outdoor Faucets
To keep your yard looking its very best, you probably water it with hoses and otherwise use them to keep the place in excellent shape. It may seem harmless to leave those hoses connected throughout the winter, but the reality is that it can lead to some pretty serious problems. For one thing, while a hose is still connected, any water that is lingering inside is unable to drain out. It can freeze and then cause pipes to crack. In older homes, you may have to manually turn off the valve inside the house. If water is left inside the hose, and the hose is left connected to
an outdoor faucet, the water inside could freeze and split the casing of the hose, rendering it useless. Construction contractors like the team at Aloha Construction can attest to the fact that many serious home repairs become necessary due to damage from water and moisture. Something as innocent as leaving a hose connected to an outdoor faucet can introduce moisture to the house that can spiral into the rotted wood and other types of damage. It only takes a few minutes to disconnect these hoses, so make sure to do so.
4. Remove Peeling Paint
Before winter hits, take some time to examine wooden structures in your yard to ensure that they are in good shape. Decks, patios, benches, and other wooden elements are often painted for aesthetics and protection, and the paint eventually peels away. Leaving bare wood exposed to the elements during the winter is a surefire way to end up with rot and other issues, so it is well worth it to take the time to scrape, prime and repaint wood elements in your yard before winter arrives.
Of course, you may not have the time or willingness to repaint your deck, patio or other wooden elements in your yard. At the very least, scrape away and remove any paint that has started to peel. Watersheds away more easily on bare wood than it does on wood that has peeling paint; in the case of the latter, it can get trapped between the layer of peeling paint and the wood, where it is exposed to the bare wood for extended periods of time. Remember as well that water damage is often caused by old, damaged or clogged gutters; contractors like Aloha Construction can repair or replace your gutters, so give them a call.
5. Consider Investing in a Tune-Up for Your Furnace
Considering the fact that it keeps you and your family warm and comfortable throughout even the most punishing Lake Zurich winters, doesn’t it make sense to give your furnace a little TLC every now and then? Fall is the perfect time to have a tune-up performed on your furnace. During a tune-up, a technician will inspect your furnace, clean its components and perform minor repairs and replacements as necessary. During a tune-up, minor issues can be caught before they become major and expensive, and important maintenance is performed to keep your furnace functioning as efficiently and effectively as possible.
The tech should check fuel connections, the heat exchanger and the burner connections. You can expect a yearly tune-up to cost anywhere from $50 to $100, or you can sign up for a yearly maintenance agreement with a heating and cooling company to take the guesswork out of maintenance. You don’t have to worry about the outdoor A/C unit unless there’s a potential for things to fall onto it during the winter. In that case, lay a piece of plywood over the top and then drape a drop cloth over it to shield it from falling debris.
6. Seal Blacktop Driveways
If you have a concrete driveway, you can skip this step. The only exception is if the concrete driveway was poured less than a year ago; if so, you should prevent salt from getting on it during the winter, which may mean having to sweep it away after it gets blown in from the road.
However, if you have a blacktop driveway, you should reseal it every two to three years. When it is due, wait until you have a nice, warm, dry day sometime in the early fall. Begin by clearing debris from the driveway; use a large push broom to ensure that everything is swept away. Use driveway detergent to clean oil spots, and then rinse the entire driveway with water. From there, fill in cracks that are ¼-inch or bigger in size with asphalt crack filler; allow it to dry for at least one hour. Next, spread sealant over the whole driveway, and wait at least 24 hours before using it like normal again.
7. Inspect and Repair Deck and Porch Boards
Before snow falls for the first time this year, take some time to carefully look over the boards on your deck or porch. If any are loose, you should secure them to prevent additional damage over the winter. Be on the lookout for boards that may be warped or that may be positioned a bit too low or too high, and then fix them or replace them so that they are flush. You can use wooden shims to prop up low areas, and you should use galvanized deck screws to fasten down any boards that may have become loose.
8. Insulate Your Whole-House Fan
If you use a whole-house fan, you are going to want to insulate it to avoid problems during the winter. Note that if you have an attic fan, you don’t have to take any special steps to prepare it for the season.
You should insulate your house fan because heated air from inside your house will be able to stream up into the attic. There, the warm, moist air will cause frost to develop on the cold roof decking. This frost may then melt and drip onto the attic floor, which is also the ceiling. The situation can quickly devolve to the point where you are dealing with stains, mold and other issues on ceilings in your home—and it can even cause serious damage to your roof.
A local contractor can help if your roof has been damaged because of water or other issues. Their team performs rigorous nine-point inspections that reveal even small and minor issues, and they can have your roof back in good working order again in no time. If it’s time for a new roof to be installed, they have you covered there too.
How a Contractor Can Help
As you can see, most of the work that needs to be done to prepare a house for the winter can be handled on a do-it-yourself basis. However, if you want or need a helping hand, contractors like Aloha Construction are available to assist in the following ways:
As a fully licensed, bonded and insured contracting company, Aloha Construction is available for roof repairs, gutter repairs, siding repairs and other types of repairs. If your fall maintenance reveals any major problems, they are available to help and offer flexible and convenient appointments.
Nothing lasts forever, which is why many people choose to work with contractors for their home replacements. Even the highest quality roofs and siding wear away and become due for a replacement eventually. While preparing your house for the winter, you may discover damage to your gutters, windows, roof or siding that calls for a complete replacement. Aloha specializes in the installation of new windows, siding, roofs, and gutters, and the company offers an array of high-quality products for competitive prices.
A contractor could also assist with maintenance, so you can get the most out of your roof, gutters and other structural components with maintenance services by Aloha Construction. Their team is also always happy to give you tips for things that you can do to keep your home in good condition. For example, changing the furnace filter every month will minimize strain on the equipment and help it to keep operating as efficiently as possible. Proactively cleaning gutters and performing small repairs to the roof keep those components operating effectively for much longer.
More on Aloha Construction
Since opening its doors several years ago, Aloha Construction has completed more than 18,000 projects. During that time, they’ve installed more than 15 million square feet of shingles, more than 7.1 million square feet of vinyl siding and more than 1 million linear square feet of gutters. The Aloha team has more than 84 years of combined experience, and the company is family owned and operated with offices in Lake Zurich and Bloomington. From their nine-step inspection process to their 10-year craftsmanship warranty, they go the extra distance for their customers in every way possible.
Homeowners can do a lot to keep their homes in great shape. This includes performing maintenance in the fall to prepare a home for winter. For bigger things like major repairs and new installations, however, there is only one name to trust in Illinois and Southern Wisconsin: Aloha Construction. Call them up to get your winter maintenance work done before the snow flies.
