Prepare Your Home For Winter Now
Now that the dog days of summer are almost over which means now is the perfect time to prepare your home for winter. Take care of any home maintenance and cleaning issues before winter’s arrival. We know how important your time is, and we really know how important it is to keep your home healthy. Below are some important things to look for when making a personal home winter inspection. The following recommendations are simple to do. However, it may be safer for you to hire the services of qualified professionals to do some of these checks for you or to interpret your findings. Saving money is good, but not at the risk of injury.
Prepare Your Home’s Exterior
Fall is the perfect time to inspect your home’s exterior. Temperature and humidity changes cause materials to shift, contract and expand. UV radiation from the sun affects paint, caulk, shingles, wood, rubber and vinyl. As a result, the exterior envelope of your home may not be as “tight” as it was this spring. As weather gets cooler, materials tend to shrink and harden. The air is drier, resulting in further shrinkage as materials lose moisture. Rubber seals around doors and windows become brittle. Look around your doors and windows. How does the caulking look? Caulk should be flexible, smooth and tight to the surface being sealed. If it is cracking, brittle and deteriorated, it should be scraped out and replaced. Is the weather stripping intact? Do windows close and seal properly? Can you see daylight or feel air leaking around doors? Downspouts and gutters should be cleaned and inspected. Are there soil depressions directly below the gutter? If you see depressions, chances are the gutters have been overflowing. Gutters that don’t drain properly increase risk of foundation damage. Downspouts should be extended at least 10 feet away from the home to ensure proper drainage.
Prepare Your Home’s Interior
Modern carpets do a great job of hiding soil. This may lead you to think you only need to clean your carpets once a year or when they “look” dirty. But according to the EPA, most households should clean carpets at least twice a year, maybe more depending on lifestyle and other factors. This may surprise you until you think about all of the soils, allergens, oils, dander, pollutants and contaminants that carpet traps. One of the best reasons for cleaning in the fall is that you want your home to look great for visiting friends and relatives during the upcoming Holidays. Nothing makes your home feel clean and inviting quite like freshly cleaned carpets and upholstery. Even if you don’t expect guests, you will be spending more time at home in the winter, so you want it to look nice for you, too.
Of course, there are far more important reasons to clean your carpet than appearance. Soil damages carpet, dramatically reducing its usable life. During the summer, pollen and other pollutants enter your home and become trapped in the carpets. In the fall, mold spores are more prevalent, again, becoming trapped in your carpet fibers. With clean carpet now, you and your family can breathe cleaner, healthier air all season long. It’s bad enough that fall and winter are the seasons when people suffer from cold and flu without adding poor indoor air quality to aggravate conditions such as asthma and allergies.
This fall, taking care of home maintenance and cleaning is a proactive approach to maintaining a healthy home! Call CLEAN PRO for more information and tips or to schedule your next cleaning.
