Extreme winter weather can leave neighborhoods and communities without power or other public services for long periods of time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warns.
It’s a smart idea to prepare your home for such winter weather emergencies as well as cold weather throughout the season that can cause minor issues to evolve into larger problems – with potential damage to your property or risk of personal injury.
Whether it’s for your primary residence or a second home you plan to leave vacant until spring, one of the first steps you need to take when winterizing your home is to Have Your Heating System Serviced and Prepare Your Plumbing.
Have Your Heating System Serviced
Have your heating and ventilation system checked for problems and cleaned before the weather gets too cold. If you wait until the first cold snap or snowstorm of the season, many service professionals will be overbooked.
Beyond keeping you warm, a functioning HVAC during the coldest days of the year is key to avoiding frozen pipes, which can burst inside your walls and cause significant damage.
If the house is vacant: It’s important to keep a vacant house at a temperature well above freezing; the standard is between 50 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
Having your HVAC system serviced before you leave for the season is also important so cold temperatures don’t cause a bigger issue like a burst pipe. “That’s typically the reason that someone has a frozen pipe – it’s not usually a faulty pipe but because the HVAC stops working. … If it’s 20 degrees outside and you have no heat in the house for a few days, you can expect the pipes to freeze,” says Mike Gulla, senior director of underwriting and customer support for Hippo Insurance, based in Palo Alto, California.
Prepare Your Plumbing
Ensure your plumbing is set up to withstand the cold, and consider utilizing sensors to let you know when there’s a problem.
In Northern states where freezing temperatures are expected for a portion of the year, housing codes require insulation and for pipes to be properly protected from the cold. Places that don’t see regular frost, however, won’t always have a basement for plumbing to stay warmer or effective insulation to keep heat from escaping. As a result, a day or week of freezing temperatures in parts of North Carolina, Georgia and even Texas can cause a lot of damage, says Anne Cope, chief engineer at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety in Richburg, South Carolina.
If your plumbing runs through a crawl space, consider insulating the pipes or the crawl space itself. “It can be either a do-it-yourself project, or it can be a hire-a-handyman project,” says Cope.
Gulla recommends getting both water-leak and pipe-temperature sensors. The former will let you know if pressure inside the pipe suddenly decreases, indicating a burst pipe, while the latter will notify you of dangerously cold pipes so you can prevent a burst pipe.
Additionally, automatic water shutoff valves are becoming more popular in homes. They stop the flow of water should a pipe freeze and burst to reduce the amount of damage to the home.
If the house is vacant: Gulla stresses the importance of having sensors and a remote water shutoff valve option to prevent damage in the house before you can get there.
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