How to Prepare Your Home for Winter Weather

As with the rest of the UK, Wales is notorious for its challenging winter weather. Warm sunny days are replaced with a deluge of rain, ice, sleet, and snow, which makes going out a far from pleasant experience.

While you’ll still struggle to keep your balance and feel cold despite wearing five layers of clothes, the winter weather doesn’t just affect humans. It can also be damaging to your home in various ways.

At least, that’s the case if you don’t adequately prepare for the incoming weather. Below are some tips to keep in mind for ensuring your home is ready for winter.

Get your boiler serviced

You don’t want to freeze in your own home, so the health of the boiler is vital. Yet a surprising number of people avoid having their boiler serviced annually – a mistake that can prove costly if it breaks down. If you have it serviced before winter kicks in, however, you can rest assured it’ll work when you need it most.

Check gutters and drains

It’s important you do not let debris like leaves build up in your gutters and drains. If leaves, mud, and even dead animals block up your drains, your house could be in danger when the snow and heavy rain storms hit. It could leak into the walls and roof, harming the structure of the property.

Insulate the loft

When keeping the house warm, there are various steps you can take. As an example, you should place your heating on a timer to ensure the system, including the pipes, keeps running smoothly.

Another point to keep in mind is properly insulating the loft. The Energy Saving Trust notes that 25% of a home’s heat is lost due to it being uninsulated, so this small and inexpensive change can help to significantly reduce your heating bills.

If an emergency does strike

Even if you put the above tips into action and prepare as much as possible, this isn’t a guarantee your home will be safe from the winter weather. Severe conditions can ruin your plans, causing everything from flooding to making a hole in your roof. If you don’t have the financial resources or coverage readily available for such an emergency, having a trusted payday loan company like Cash Lady in your back pocket makes sense.

Even if you’re suffering with bad credit, you can gain the money required to cover an emergency – and fast. While it might not be an ideal situation, it can solve the issue before it becomes an even bigger problem for your home’s structural integrity.

The recovery process

Winter is over. The work is done, right? Not quite. In fact, there are various maintenance steps you should take following the bad weather.

For instance, you’re highly unlikely to open your house’s windows during the winter. Yet if they remain closed it could lead to the hinges and locks seizing. Fortunately, applying a small amount of oil to the window’s moving parts can remedy this potential problem. You will also want to inspect aspects like your roof, drains, and gutters.