​Protect Your Pipes
Harsh weather and cold temperatures can lead to bursting pipes and water damage which can be a costly repair. There are things we can do to avoid this. 

• Houses in colder climates might benefit from the use of approved plastic plumbing instead of steel or copper. 
• Shut off the water supply for exterior pipes and make sure they drained. 
• Sprinkler systems should also be turned off and compressed air can be used to purge the pipes and dry them out. Insulate all exposed pipes in cold areas in their entirety.  

Inspect and Maintain the Heating System
Make sure your heating works BEFORE you need it. Here are some quick checks to maintaining an active unit.

• Replace the air filter if it’s dirty.
• Raise the temperature on the thermostat to test the furnace. If should respond quickly, if not it might be broken.
• The tank should be full if the furnace is equipped with an oil or propane tank.

Roofs
Clean roofs and gutters will ensure that things don’t freeze up and lead to damage

• Make sure gutters are clean and free of debris. Frozen debris left in gutters allows for the formation of ice dams that prevent water from draining. Trapped water in the gutter can enter the house and lead to the growth of mold. 
• Replace any missing shingles.

In conclusion, winterizing your home is a great way to protect your home against damage caused by cold temperatures. Before it gets too cold, make this a yearly practice.

​As colder weather creeps in, there are countless things that a wise homeowner will need to do to keep their investment protected throughout the winter. We can’t cover all of them in one post, but here are just a few simple tips to get you thinking about what may still need to be done around your home.

Unfortunately, the winter season is when most house fires and carbon monoxide poisoning happens. For that reason, it’s important to make sure your chimney is cleaned and inspected before you really start using it, and test out your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector to make sure your loved ones are protected.

Also, while low temperatures are a key source of issues, you may want to protect your home from other natural elements. For example, could your attic be a cozy home for some unwanted pests? Are the trees on your property a potential hazard?

We all love a beautiful sunny day, and our homes always look so warm and comforting with the sun shining on it. But that sunshine is a double-edged sword. Sunlight is both a good thing, and something that is very damaging as well.

UV rays are very harsh on a house. The key areas that are affected by the sun’s rays are the roof and siding. The roof has a layer of protection against sun damage in the granules. The granules on your roof act as part of its “sunscreen”. The issue is that the granules wear away over time. As this happens, your roof will be more prone to sun damage.

Siding is another area of your home that is affected by the sun. If you have vinyl siding, the color in the siding is slowly worn away day by day. This is especially true for vinyl siding that is darker in color. Another issue that can occur is with low-e windows. These types of windows are common on many homes nowadays, and are very energy efficient. The issue is that they reflect a great deal of the suns rays, and even concentrates them. So many times melted siding on the side of a home can appear seemingly randomly, but it is often just damage from the sun’s rays reflecting off of the windows andgoing at an angle.

The way you keep your home is entirely up to you. If you don’t care about having a mess, that is no one’s concern but yours, but if you are thinking of selling your home, you might want to give that some thought. It has been shown that homes that are cluttered are a lot less likely to sell than one that is clean and well-kept.
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This is not just because of the impression that it gives, but also due to the things that a prospective buyer can think when seeing a messy home.

One assumption is that pests could be hiding in messy areas of your home. It is virtually impossible to spot a rodent infestation if they have their pick of your home for hiding places.

​Another assumption is that there isn’t enough storage space in the home, causing you to store your things out in the open. Even if this isn’t the case, a cluttered home looks smaller than one that is straightened out.

​With everything going the way it has this year, people are in a more desperate state of mind than ever before. This kind of thing causes people to make bad decisions, perhaps even resorting to crime to solve their problems. Of course, we don’t want to alarm you needlessly, and hopefully, this will never happen to you. However, there are plenty of things that a homeowner can do to protect themselves from the threat of burglaries.

Good lighting around and inside your home is a major crime deterrent. Unless you live far away from civilization, the brighter your property is at night, the less chance there is that a robber would want to risk breaking into your home.

Also, give some thought to how your home and activity look from the outside. Does it look occupied? Do you have someone stay there while you’re away for a long time? What does your social networking account say about where you are right now?

​How do you feel when you see a snake in your backyard? Even though there aren’t that many dangerous snakes here in the US, many have an issue with any type of snake, especially so if it is close to their home. So, what can you do to discourage snakes from being in your yard? It comes down to removing the things that they want – food and shelter.

Many types of snakes live off of rodents, so if you have a lot of rodents in your yard, you’re also likely to have snakes there hunting them. Get rid of the rodents and you will most likely get rid of the snakes. There are traps and pesticides that you can use, the choice is really up to you, just be aware that rodents can be very good at figuring out how to overcome your traps, so you need to be smarter than them.

When it comes to shelter, keeping your lawn cut short will deny the snakes a good hiding place, and that can discourage them from getting into your yard. They also enjoy the heat from the sun in rocky areas, so if you can remove piles of rocks near your home, you will deny them an ideal place to live.

​You should think about upgrading your thermostat! Why? Well, over time, older thermostats lose their effectiveness and accuracy. Additionally, there are a lot of advantages to having a properly-functioning, modern thermostat. They can be more energy-efficient, which saves you money, they can be password-protected, which saves you from family disputes, and much more.

There are a lot of relatively new features available in modern thermostats, as well. One of the biggest things in thermostat technology could perhaps be the fact that they can connect to your home’s WiFi network. This opens up a world of possibilities, including attaching them to your home’s smart devices, making it possible to control them by voice, or adjusting the thermostat while you’re thousands of miles away from your home. Additionally, most thermostats these days are also capable of learning and predicting the behavior of the occupants in a home. This sounds scary at first, but it can lead to pinpoint efficiency in your home’s heating system.

​Have you ever found yourself in a spot where you would like to clean your hands but with no access to running water? If so, you would probably have been thankful for some hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer is the best tool for killing bacteria and viruses on your hands when you are in a situation like that, but does that mean that you should be using hand sanitizer all the time?

No, while hand sanitizer is fairly effective in killing viruses and bacteria, it is by no means a good substitute for washing your hands.

The reason why washing with soap and hot water is more effective is because of the way that it functions. Soap attacks viruses in 2 ways. It prevents them from attaching to your hands as well as killing them. This proves much safer than simply hand sanitizing. Because of this, whenever you have the option to do so, wash your hands with soap and hot water.

​While you might feel like there will always be water available to you whenever you turn on the tap, this might not be as much of a guarantee as you think. There are those that predict that water supply might be a big problem for mankind in the future as pollution and other issues start having an effect on freshwater sources.

If this is the case, practicing water conservation now could help you be better prepared for the future.

The amount of water being used in your home is greatly affected by how old your bathroom fixtures are. For example, older toilets can use as much as 5 times the amount of water that a modern toilet does, and still not be as effective.

Replacing old toilets and installing aerators on your faucets can make a huge difference in your water consumption. If you also get into the good habit of not leaving the water running unnecessarily when showering or using the faucet, you will notice a significant drop in your water usage.

​In cities across America, restaurants are required by law to have a proper grease trap, or grease interceptor, installed in their kitchens. The reason for this is that as hot, liquid grease is poured down a drain, all seems well and good. However, as it goes through the plumbing system, it meets up with cooler water, causing the liquid grease to congeal and solidify. This can cause serious issues in a city’s wastewater system. In fact, some cities have found “fatbergs” that have weighed more than four humpback whales.

Why do we tell you this horror story? Well, even though your home is not going to be producing a whale’s weight in grease, the fact remains that there is no amount of grease that is acceptable for pouring down a drain. Even if poured down a drain with hot water, the grease will eventually solidify and cause issues. Instead, wait until it cools, and throw it in the trash.