How to Winter-Proof Your Home

The winter months are, sadly, much closer at hand than they might initially appear. The UK has enjoyed a surprise late-summer heatwave in the first weeks of September, but this heatwave is also one of the summer’s last gasps before colder conditions sweep the nation.
As winter threatens to descend, household thoughts naturally turn to preparation. Winter is not a fun season to weather, and particularly not when energy bills remain significantly higher than they were pre-pandemic. What steps can you take to ensure your home is as winter-ready as can be?
Draughtproofing
The first step you might take is also one of the simplest: draughtproofing your home. This involves conducting a thorough sweep of your home to find the potential source of any draughts from outdoors, such as through failed window frame sealant, under doorways or through skirting boards. It is important to do this first, before other, more expensive interventions, as draughts can have an extreme and deleterious impact on the felt warmth of a space – counteracting the positive benefits of other work.
While insulation and a new boiler (explored shortly) might work wonders for rising the ambient temperature, any draughts that make the air move will reduce the perceived temperature of the same space by a considerable degree.
A caulk gun and some silicone sealant are all you need to address the majority of draughts discovered in a home; you might want to crack out the power tools and replace your skirting boards in certain places, though, particularly if you are noticing a strong draught from while an aftermarket draught excluder can make a real difference with regard to internal doors.
Address Heating Systems
With draughts well and truly hunted down, you can turn your attention to the heart of your winter comfort: your central heating system. Since it has been off for a period of months, it would be well worth spending some time rehabilitating your system by hiring a heating engineer to ensure smooth operation when the temperature drops.
It is possible to do some of the work yourself however by identifying any problems that are currently present in the system and seeing if you’re able to fix them yourself. For example, if you have noticed that there a cold patches on some of your radiators, then this means bleeding your radiators. With a radiator bleed key and a washing up bowl, you can go around every radiator in your home and bleed them in order to remove air from the system.
This will allow the radiators to work as intended, guaranteeing heat in each room. Next, don’t forget about the fuel. You can order online from PayLessForOil and get good deals for your heating needs. You should also be sure not to leave your heating off too long into the winter, or your pipes might freeze and addressing your heating might get costlier.
Add Insulation
Finally, the insulation in your home is the last bastion between the heat you have built up and the outside elements. Without it, heat would transfer easily between rooms and out of the house altogether, ramping up energy bills and ensuring an uncomfortable winter.
Even with your home already insulated, you might wish to consider re-insulating rooms or your attic. New mineral wools could give you a better energy efficiency coefficient, reducing bills and increasing comfort all the while.
If you’re on a tighter budget, adding rugs to hardwood or tile floors and heavy curtains to windows can act as supplementary insulation. While making insulation upgrades, don’t forget your roof’s condition. Any gaps or damage could compromise your efforts to retain heat. In these cases, it’s worth consulting a professional roofer to assess the situation and make necessary repairs. This step ensures your insulation efforts are maximized, and your home is prepared for the harshest winter days.
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