Protect Your Property This Winter

With the shorter days and drop in temperatures, now is a great time to focus on how to keep your home safe and cosy during the cold winter months.  Winter can be a beautiful season, but freezing temperatures bring unique challenges to your property.  It is important to make sure you are protected and as prepared as possible.

We’ve put together some practical tips to help you to prepare your home for winter effectively.  Whether you are preparing your own family home, or thinking about a rental or vacant property, these insights will help you to ensure that your home is safe and warm during the winter.

Grab a hot cuppa and read on to see what you might want to add into your own winter prep routine.

The importance of lagging pipes

Lagging, or insulating, water pipes during the winter months is really important.  Pipes in garages, outbuildings, or outside your home are the ones most likely to freeze during cold weather and frozen water pipes can potentially be a big problem.

Frozen pipes can stop your heating and hot water from working properly, but more of a concern is that it can cause them to burst.  And they don’t always burst in a dramatic, obvious way.  A slow leak can be just as damaging to your property if it goes unnoticed, particularly in relation to electrics.

Consider the pipes which might need to be lagged in your property and look at what options would work best.  There are a number of DIY options available, depending on your budget and needs.

Keeping your thermostat on low

It sounds counter intuitive when we are all looking to keep the price of our utility bills down but is it important to consider the internal temperature of your property, especially during the winter months.   Advice for the UK would suggest that keeping your property at a stable temperature (a minimum of 12 degrees), specifically for empty homes or during periods when you are on holiday, may prevent your pipes from freezing.

Plus, remembering to set the thermostat to 12 degrees significantly reduces your energy consumption, compared to keeping it at higher temperatures when you aren’t home.

If your property is unoccupied, try and arrange a keyholder who can visit the property each week.  It is important to check your policy wording in case it asks for more frequent visits, and see the terms and conditions set by your insurance provider.  Some home insurance policies may require you to maintain a certain temperature during winter to avoid invalidating your insurance cover.

Ensure that your gutters are kept clear of build up

During the autumn and winter months, it is easy for moss, wet leaves and other debris to build up in gutters that are left unchecked.  Not only can this disrupt the essential flow of water away from your property, but a build up of frozen water can be an accident waiting to happen when it gets too heavy and comes down.  It is a good idea to check for any damaged or lost tiles too, and get them replaced as soon as possible, to ensure thermal efficiency and to protect your property against leaks.

Don’t let snow accumulate on flat roofs

Although a snowy roof is a beautiful sight on a clear, crisp day, the weight of snow which is built up can cause damage or even collapse, particularly to a shallow-pitched or flat roof.  As the snow or ice melts, this can cause issues too, if it is too much for your roof drainage systems to deal with.

If you aren’t able to safely remove the snow build up yourself, you can hire a professional who will be able to help you to clear it.

Did you know that most policies have a condition that flat roofs must be checked and maintained every ten years and that this must be documented?  This is definitely something that needs to be actioned if your property has a flat roof.

Other general checks

Whilst you are conducting these welfare checks of your property, it is a good time to also include a check of your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.  Use the test button on battery powered devices to check that batteries are still working, and replace them where needed.  If your property has interlinked alarms which are wired in, you can also use the test feature to ensure that they are all working properly.  Ideally, this check should be done on a monthly basis, although it is easy to forget.  A gentle clean of the front of the detector can also help to remove any dust build up.

Document your property

If you haven’t done it before, it may be worth considering documenting your property.  In the unfortunate event that your property suffers either a theft or flood event, it can help you to remember what was in each room.  It is very common to think that you would know what you own, but a record can be very helpful!  This doesn’t need to be a detailed inventory of each room (although feel free to do this if you have the time), but a few photographs showing the main items in each of your rooms ,such as living areas and bedrooms, can be a very helpful visual record which hopefully you will never need.

Are you prepared for an emergency?

If there was suddenly a power outage and you didn’t have your mobile phone to hand, would you know where your nearest torch was?  Does it even have working batteries in it?  Where do we keep spare batteries these days?

It may sound a little extreme, but having a plan for instances such as a power outage can be really helpful.  We aren’t talking about a basement full of canned foods and a generator, but an emergency bag containing things like a torch and spare batteries, a small first aid kit, a mobile phone power bank and charging leads, and a list of emergency contact numbers could prove very useful.