Fall is coming! Button up Your Home for the Cooler Months!
The 90 degree days of summer will be coming to an end in the next week and a half. The Autumnal Equinox officially starts on September 22nd which means it is that time of year to get your home in order for the cooler months. Below are some top areas of your home to inspect when the crisp air moves into town.
Look up
Your roof is what protects the majority of your home from the weather elements so it is imperative to make sure it is in working order. Use binoculars from the ground or have someone assist you on a ladder to look for loose, missing, cracked, or curled shingles.
Your gutters are what direct water away from your home preventing backup causing damage to your roof, siding and possibly flooding your basement. You want to make sure that your gutters and downspouts are free of debris before the first heavy fall rainfall. If you are tired of getting on your ladder year after year to clean out your gutters you should consider our LeafGuard Brand gutter system. It is a patented one-piece seamless gutter system designed to allow water to flow freely while eliminating clogs by deflecting debris such as leaves, pine needles and small branches from nearby trees.
Look around
Gaps between your siding, windows, and doors that are larger than 1/8” are in need of a caulk reapplication. Silicone caulk is the best for exterior use because it won’t shrink and it’s not affected by the elements. Adding weather-stripping around your doors making sure you can’t see any daylight will keep the bugs out and the heat in.
Drain all of your exterior faucets so that your pipes will not freeze. If your pipes freeze the likelihood of them bursting due to expanding ice is a very good change causing a large mess in your home. Disconnect all hoses from you house and if you don’t have frost-proof faucets turn off your shut-off valve inside your home. If you have a sprinkler system this would be the time to call a professional to drain your lines.
If you have cracks in your driveway, walkways or steps know that if you don’t fix them they will become a bigger hazard once water seeps into them and freezes. You can use acrylic latex concrete to repair cracks that are less than a ½ inch wide and for larger cracks you will have to use a concrete patching compound.
If you are like many Americans who have ceiling fans, make sure to change the rotation to clockwise to push warm air down. Remove all window AC units.
