Top Winter Maintenance Tips For Your Home

Just like us, our homes can need a little TLC over the colder, winter months. A home maintenance routine is important for every home’s upkeep - whether new or old - ensuring it continues to perform at its best throughout the year.

Whether you’ve just purchased your first home, or your fifth, we’ve put together our top tips to help see you through the colder months ahead and keep your home looking as good as new.

Outdoor furniture

As we’ve spent more hours at home this year, many homeowners will have invested both time and money in their outdoor space - from garden accessories like tables and loungers, to barbeques and all-singing-all-dancing sprinkler systems to keep the grass looking extra lush.

Although the summer’s garden maintenance feels like a distant memory now, don’t let all your hard work go to waste. This winter, tuck your gadgets and furniture away inside your garage or shed to keep them in good working order for next summer.

Alternatively, invest in a well-insulated or waterproof cover for things like barbeques that can’t be so easily transported or packed away.

Paving

Allowing moss to build up between your paving slabs might cause them to crack at a later stage. If you’ve got a pressure washer or putty knife to hand, spend some time clearing away the green.

If you can, time the maintenance of your pathways to when you have a few dry days of weather, invest in some patio sand that can be spread across the path to fill in the gaps and prevent any further foliage from sprouting through.

Leaves

During the early winter months, you’ll notice more and more leaves rapidly falling from the trees and settling in your home’s guttering and all over the garden. Before the frost arrives in early January, and the leaves begin to stick and freeze, get your heavy-duty brush and sweep any leaves into a pile ready to pop into a bin.

One of the more time-consuming and high-priority jobs is decluttering the leaves from your guttering, which will have almost certainly piled up during the Autumn months. However, early winter is the perfect opportunity to clean them out so that your drainage systems are clear during the frosty-period right through until Spring when the leaves come through again. Remember that working at height can be dangerous, so it may be best to enlist the help of a professional.

While you’re packing your furniture away, this could be a good time to sweep any debris that may have developed underneath or around your seats and tables keeping your patio looking neat and tidy.

Pipes

To avoid frozen pipes that could burst and cause a flood, ensure you’re regularly turning your heating on - ideally keeping it at a low setting every day.

Although your pipework is well insulated, if you think the pipes may be frozen, try to avoid turning on hot water taps as this will empty the hot water tank. During frosty weather in particular, make sure the stopcock to any outside taps is shut off too.

For your indoor taps, every now and again, let them drip gently so that the water throughout your house continues to flow smoothly. This is especially important as extremely cold weather could lead to frozen water in your taps if it’s left to stand still for long periods, leaving you with little or no water.

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