With fall arriving in Illinois, there is a new set of home maintenance concerns to address. In order to ensure that your home is ready to withstand everything Mother Nature has to offer over the course of the winter, you’ll need to take stock of your home’s exterior and handle any issues before the snow begins to fall. If you’re interested in learning more about how to prepare your home for the winter ahead, keep reading below for our tips!
Check Your Gutters
Particularly in snowy climates like Illinois, the need to clean your gutters in the fall can not be overstated. Having a clean gutter system is often the difference between having ice dams in the winter and successfully avoiding them. By having a clean gutter system, you can ensure that your system has more capacity to handle the frozen water that will continually back up during the winter as a result of snow-melt. This means it will take longer for the ice to back-up, giving you an opportunity to address it before it becomes an issue.
However, if you don’t clean debris out of your system, it will quickly reach capacity, causing frozen water to back up onto your roof where it can seep under your shingle system and quickly cause water damage, which is what it’s so important to keep your gutter system clean!
Look For Drafts
One of the biggest contributors to energy loss in any home is leaky windows & doors. They compromise at least 30% of your home’s total energy loss, which means it is important to ensure that your units are free of any significant drafts in order to help keep that number down. Checking for drafts is quite simple, and even easier during the cooler months when the temperature difference is more noticeable. If you’re unable to identify a leak simply by being in close proximity to the window, your best bet is to get a candle and hold it around the window frame or door. If the flame is being moved by the wind, you have a draft coming through the unit that will need to be fixed to keep your home as energy-efficient as possible!
Have Your Roof Inspected
Lastly, it is always a smart idea to have your home’s roof inspected during the fall. Inspecting your home’s roof is one of the most important home maintenance tasks you can do, as it provides your home with essential protection from moisture damage all winter long, so you’ll need to ensure the system is in working order.
Have a roofing professional come and examine the system to ensure that there are no broken or missing shingles, rusted flashing, or hard-to-spot roof leaks that could cause significant damage to your home this winter. If you’re interested in protecting your home, a roof inspection is one of the best investments you can make.
Contact Us Today
If you’re interested in replacing your windows & doors this fall, or you’re interested in any of our other exterior remodeling services, our team is ready to assist! Reach out to us today by giving us a call at (847) 443-5389 or by filling out our team’s online contact form. We look forward to assisting with all of your fall home maintenance needs!
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