Winterizing Your Home

Caulking can be one of the most overlooked or taken for granted areas of your home. Most homes have caulking located around the exteriors of all windows and doors. As the temperatures drop all materials on your home shrink just a little. Caulk is no exception and this can cause the caulk to pull away from the adjoining surfaces allowing for both moisture and cold air infiltration.

Foundation insulation is another commonly overlooked product especially in older homes. Fortunately there are now many simple and easy to install foundation insulation products on the market now. Some of the best products for winterizing your home include spray foam insulation and rockwool insulation which are both easy to install yourself.

Attic insulation is probably the most thought about winterization product. After all heat rises and the heat in your home is constantly trying to rise and escape from the highest point possible. It is important to determine what material your attic insulation is made of and also how much settled thickness, that’s right insulation settles and as it does it looses some of its ability the limit your heat loss.

The two most common attic insulation products are blow in cellulose and fiberglass in either batt or blown in form. Cellulose insulation is more likely to settle over the years and will tend to loose more of its insulating value over time, so an insulation check up is a good winterization practice.

One often overlooked practice I include with winterizing your home is to clean all your rain gutters after the leaves have fallen from your trees in the fall. It is important to understand how damaging a clogged downspout can become with freezing water in the gutter trough expanding up against the roof eave and possibly under the roof edge where it can cause permanent damage to the roof sheathing or even home interior.

If you enjoy keeping plants indoors near your windows you must remember that you are introducing a lot of moisture into the air around the cooler window surface, as a result you will see an increased potential for condensation forming on the glass surface of your windows. This is not necessarily air leakage of the window but the same effect as water droplets forming on a summer glass of ice tea. Moist air against a cool surface forms water droplets as it condenses. It is important to remember that any window surface is going to be the coolest exterior surface in your home.

When helping people with their home winterization plans I always recommend maintaining air flow around all window areas. This will help reduce the amount of humidity setting stagnant around your windows and reduce the likelihood of condensation problems. These problems can become especially bad if you have wood windows as continued exposure of this moisture will eventually cause deterioration of the finish material on the wood surface and even mildew buildup.

As you can see winterizing your home is a process that should be addressed every year as the weather begins to cool down. Following some of the simple ideas can help you save on your energy bills as well as preserve the quality of your home.