February Home Maintenance Tips

February Home Maintenance Tips

The transition between winter and spring is the time to get a jump on moisture damage and heat loss, make quick work of organizing storage areas and work in some garden prep before spring.

Don’t let winter slip away without using the cold, wet weather to help you detect where your home is leaking water and heat, giving you a chance to seal it up tight and develop a wish list for energy-saving improvements. Your first order of business inside your home is to make sure no water is getting in.

Carefully check every spot where condensation or water could enter your living areas and storage spaces. 

Take along a pad of paper and a pencil and take detailed notes as you scrutinize ceilings, under the roof, under the eaves and along window and door frames and ventilation seals. Be particularly careful to check under toilets, sinks, tubs and showers. Use a flashlight to check the crawl space or basement walls and floors and the underside of the first-story floor. You’re looking for visible moisture and for stains caused by moisture. When you find something, the remedy will depend on the source of the leak. You may just need to re-caulk around a tub or window, or you may need to call a plumber to replace a leaking fixture.

Here are some other tasks to tackle inside your home this month:

Change the shower curtain. While you’re checking for leaks in the bathroom, see if the shower curtain needs replacing. Damp shower curtains can grow unhealthy mold and mildew and contribute to mold problems in the tub and shower, so swap yours out periodically and make sure to open and air out the shower enclosure when you’re done bathing.

Batten down the hatches. Find and seal energy leaks. Grab a pad and pencil to note any spots that you can’t address right away. Arm yourself with a tube of caulk to fill small cracks and a spray can of insulating foam sealer for larger gaps. Tour your home feeling for cold air entering through cracks in chimneys and window and door frames, and cracks around appliance vents, electrical and plumbing fixtures and furnace ducts. Remedies might include adding weatherstripping to a door frame or applying fresh caulk to window frames.

Clean out storage areas. Get a head start on spring cleaning by attacking a cluttered storage space. Whether you go after the garage, attic, laundry room or garden shed, your home benefits when you get rid of rusting 

tools, leaking fluids and household chemicals. Start by taking everything out of the space and piling it up outside or in the garage. Clean the empty space, then go through the items, trying to let go of everything you haven’t used in the last year. Make four piles: stuff to keep, trash, donations and recycling, and hazardous waste. Open paint cans to dry the paint completely before disposing. Recycle batteries so the lead they contain doesn't contaminate ground water. Rules for disposal vary by locale. Call your waste-disposal company or the county landfill to learn where and how to dispose of hazardous waste.

Get a fire extinguisher. Better yet, get several. Buy fire extinguishers for each type of fire you might encounter at home and place them where you’ll need them. For example, use the A-B-C class for living areas and in workshops and garages. For the kitchen, get a specialized extinguisher capable of putting out class B (grease) and C (electrical) fires. For living and sleeping areas and fireplaces, get a multipurpose A-B-C that also works on fires consuming wood, cloth, trash and paper. Inspect extinguishers regularly to ensure the gauges read 100%. If your not sure about your current fire extinguisher you can stop by any fire hall/station and the fire men can have a look at it for you.

Outside:
February is a transitional month in much of Ontario. Winter storms may continue to cause damage to home exteriors and landscaping.

Check for storm damage. While you’re outside, walk around the house looking for missing or damaged siding and shingles. Remove fallen branches and storm debris from around the house. Keep snow clear of gas meters, gas appliance vents, exhaust vents and basement windows.

CMHC has a fairly extensive checklist for regular home maintenance for all the seasons. 

January Home Maintenance Tips

January Home Maintenance Tips

The dead of winter is the time for the greatest vigilance in your home-maintenance routine. The most important job this month is to head off damage to your home from water and dampness from a number of sources:

• Groundwater and rain seeping into your home.
• Leaky pipes inside the walls.
• Pipes bursting from freezing and thawing.
• Knock down icicles from the house, but stand far enough away to ensure you will not get hit in the process. If it falls off and you're under it you can get severely hurt , it is an impaling hazard. 

Take a tour:

After a winter storm, get outside as soon as you can. Walk around the house, checking for damage from wind and broken tree limbs. Use binoculars if you can't see your entire roof. Scan for loose or missing shingles.

Give special attention to vulnerable pipes — indoors and out — that are exposed to the cold, including hose bibs, pipes in outside walls, garden sprinkler lines, swimming pool pipes and pipes in unheated attics, basements and garages. A frozen pipe needs only a one-eighth-inch crack to leak as much as 250 gallons a day, according State Farm Insurance which.

Take these steps to safeguard against damage from frozen and bursting pipes:

1. If practical, insulate any pipes exposed to the cold. Ask hardware-store personnel for the best materials for the job.
2. Seal any leaks that are letting cold air in, especially around dryer vents and pipes and where electrical wiring enters the house.
3. Search for un-insulated water supply lines in the attic, garage, basement and crawl spaces and in bathroom and kitchen cabinets adjacent to outside walls. During a cold spell, open cupboard doors in the kitchen and bathroom so the home's heat can reach them. (Reminder: Put harmful household cleaners out of the reach of children.) Keep doors shut tight in the garage and outside closets and cupboards during freezing weather.
4. When temperatures drop below zero, open both hot and cold faucets a trickle to relieve pressure in the pipes.
5. Locate your home's water shut-off valve; learn how to turn off the water quickly in case a pipe bursts.
6. If you'll be gone in freezing weather, even overnight, ask a friend or neighbor to check on your house for broken or leaking pipes. Show him or her how to shut off the water.
7. Keep temperatures inside the house at 55 degrees Fahrenheit or above, night and day, even when you're gone.
8. Promise yourself that when the weather improves you will add to the installation in the basement or crawl space and attic.

Leak prevention

• Install small, battery-powered individual leak alarms, also called flood alarms, under the refrigerator, kitchen and bathroom drain pipes, dishwasher and laundry appliances and behind toilets. Cost: around $10-$15 each.
• Check to make sure your sump pump is operating properly. If it has a battery backup, unplug the pump from the wall and test it.

Look for pests seeking shelter
Cold weather drives mice and insects into the walls of your home. Even unheated parts of the house invite these pests. Insects need only a crack to enter, and mice can get in through a dime-sized hole.

• Seal any cracks where pests enter.
• Empty compost and garbage frequently.
• Keep food covered and put away; keep counters clean.
• Pour boiling water down bathroom and kitchen drains monthly, preventing the buildup of bacteria-laden sludge; scrub removable drain covers weekly.
• Check basement, attic, crawl spaces and the back of cupboards and cabinets for mice droppings or holes. If you find evidence, install traps immediately or call a pest-control service.

Make an inventory
While you are putting away holiday gifts, seize the opportunity to make a quick home inventory.

An inventory is a record of your home's features, conditions, furnishings and valuable possessions. If your home is damaged or destroyed by fire, flood, mudslide or other disaster, you can use the inventory to substantiate your insurance claim to get the maximum replacement value for what was lost.

Bottom of Form

Your inventory doesn't have to be fancy. You can get started and add to it later. Supplement your record with photos or video and .

Tips:

• Save receipts for valuable home purchases and for work you have done to upgrade the interior or exterior of your home.
• Keep a copy of your inventory in a bank safe-deposit box or on a hosted server online, so you can get it even if your computer is destroyed.

Also …
Here are a few more winter tasks:

1. Check the labels on the switches in your electrical circuit-breaker panel and make new labels if necessary.
2. Check your furnace filter monthly in the winter to see if it needs replacing.
3. Use a vacuum-cleaner tool or a long-handled brush to clean under and behind the refrigerator, including the coils.
4. Clean lint from under laundry appliances, especially the dryer, carefully work the cleaning tool down into the lint filter; outdoors, clean the dryer vent outlet, reaching as far as possible into the pipe.
5. Gather product documents and warranties into a folder. Go through the contents and discard outdated materials.
6. Walk around inside the house with a screwdriver, pencil and paper. Tighten any loose knobs and attachments and list repairs to tackle later.
7. Examine the ducts of your forced-air furnace and seal any leaks with duct tape.