How to Prepare Your Home for Winter: Part II

Maryland Real Estate Podcast with Kathi Kershaw

Today we’re back with more tips on how to prevent your home from being damaged by winter weather.

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Welcome to part two of our series on how to protect your home during the winter months. If you missed part one, click here to get caught up. Today, Tony Campanella joins us once more to give some advice on how to make sure cold weather doesn’t adversely affect your home.

Water damage is a constant danger that houses face, and during the winter, this danger takes the form of ice damming. Ice damming occurs through the entire system of the exterior of our roofs. As ice thaws out, it goes behind the gutter and into the wood board that supports the gutter system. That water then runs down the length of either the roof trusses or the floor joists in your home, depending on how the gutter system is built. This creates damage on the interior of your home along the drywall where the downspout and the gutters are attached to the property.

You can prevent this from happening by keeping your gutters clear of any debris. You want to do this not just for the sake of ice damming, but for any potential water accumulation. If your gutters are clogged, debris will overflow toward the downspout. If the hole of your downspout is clogged, the whole system won’t work. Any accumulated moisture will have nowhere to go. In addition to keeping your gutters clear of debris, another important thing to do is channel the water coming down from the downspout at least eight to 12 feet away from the perimeter of your home.

Keep your gutters clean and clear.

Snow accumulation atop your roof is another potential problem winter poses. Roofs in our area are engineered to withstand roughly 150 pounds of weight per square foot, so you shouldn’t have much of an issue unless you have a flatter roof. If this is the case, you may want to use a broom or a roof rake to sweep that snow off.

Carbon monoxide-related disasters are another danger to take seriously. Nowadays, you can buy carbon monoxide detectors that can plug into any outlet for roughly $50. If you have a gas furnace, make sure you place your carbon monoxide detector in that area, because that would be the first place to detect an incomplete combustion.

One more useful tip is to change your air filters on your furnace and replace the batteries in your smoke detectors once every three months. You can never be too careful, and this kind of schedule is a good system to have in place.

If you need any more advice or information from Tony, you can call him at [phone] or email him at [e-mail]. If you have any questions for me, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I’d be happy to help!