As the winter arrives in New England, you’ll want to make sure that your home’s exterior is protected from the harsh cold weather conditions that strike Massachusetts every year.
November is possibly one of the last chances you will have to thoroughly inspect your home’s exterior and make the necessary repairs, additions, or adjustments to prepare your exterior for the incoming cold months.
Today, let’s discuss a few simple steps that you can take to prep and protect your home’s exterior over the next few months.
Inspect The Paint Around Your Home
Whether you have just freshly painted your house’s exterior or if you’re recent paint job is a few years old, you will want to make sure that you give it a proper personal inspection before the winter arrives.
On your inspection, be on the lookout for chipped paint, holes, cracks, or rotting wood. You will want to get these fixed as soon as possible, because once the constant freezing and thawing moisture of winter sets in, it could cause even more unsightly and costly damage to your home.
These tiny cracks and chips can also allow water to get into your home, potentially damaging part of your home’s interior as well as exterior, or developing into mold if neglected.
Wash Your Home’s Exterior Thoroughly
With the weather still slightly mild as far as temperatures go, now is the best time to clean your home’s exterior before the cold sets in. You’ll want to make sure that all dirt and other debris is cleaned (a power washer is great for this) and cleared off of the paint.
As we all know, once the snow decides to arrive, it piles up quickly. Once the snow piles up, this dirt and debris are trapped underneath, against your home’s exterior.
While trapped and frozen underneath the snow and ice, the debris can cause unsightly chips, scratches, and cracks in your paint, adding to your list of clean-up and maintenance tasks once spring rolls back around.
Clear And Clean Your Gutters
Let’s face it, cleaning out the gutter is no one’s favorite task, but it is an extremely necessary one.
In the fall, nearby trees lose their leaves. The function of gutters is to keep water away from your house. Aside from making an attractive home for pests, if too many of these leaves and other forms of natural debris build up in your gutters, they can prevent the gutters from doing their job.
In the winter, this is much worse. Once the water collected in the clogged gutter freezes, it can cause dangerous ice dams. The accumulation of ice on top of these dams can spread to your roof, wreaking havoc. These heavy ice dams can also push down on your gutters, which are not made to handle the weight of all-winter ice build-up, and can pull the gutters away from your home.
