Part 2 of 3 – Prepping Your Home For Colder Weather

part 2 of 3

Tis the season for vibrant reds, golden yellows and vivid oranges, pumpkins, and refreshingly cool temps. But, it also means winter isn’t far away.

Our last post covered a few projects including lighting, landscaping/composting and hiding trash containers. Continuing on, here are more things that can help your home brace for the cold and save you some cash.

Freeze-Proof Exterior Faucets

Even the most intrepid do-it-yourselfer shudders at the thought of a burst water pipe. If not immediately noticed, a ruptured pipe can be both expensive and time-consuming to clean up. Fortunately, the pipe that’s most susceptible to extremely cold weather—the outdoor hose faucet—is also one of the easiest to protect from freezing. Replace an existing hose faucet with a freeze-proof faucet. You can do it yourself in just a few hours.

Get Your Entry Guest-Ready

Unfortunately, a door’s weather seals, if it has any at all, can rip, compress, bend, or wear out over time, leaving chilly winter air free to enter (or expensive air-conditioned air to leave). Lucky for you, making your door draft-free is a straightforward exercise, far cheaper and faster than installing a new door. Once that’s done, enhance curb appeal with aesthetic entry upgrades like adding exterior trim, flanking the door with sconces, throwing down a doormat, and swapping entry locksets.

Build a Mudroom Bench With Storage

Fall means back-to-school. Create a stopping area just inside the entry where everyone can leave the weather and dirt from their day behind. Build a mudroom bench that’s the perfect catchall, complete with an open top shelf, coat hooks, and flip-top bench storage. See more mudroom ideas, including how to add a handy hose-down area, trash-recycling area, and more.

Maintain Your Washer and Dryer

Left unattended, a burst washing-machine hose can spill hundreds of gallons of water an hour. Likewise, a dryer can erupt in flame if lint is allowed to build up inside the machine or its ducts. Preventing such mishaps is as easy as replacing a washer’s old rubber hoses, ideally with steel-jacketed ones that can’t split open. Or discarding the dryer’s flimsy—and flammable—vinyl duct and putting a metal one in its place.