Share your winterization tips & tricks.

[RickeyM]

For us folks that are in areas that have cold winters, "winterization" is key. I've found the Audiokarma crew are some of the most knowledgeable people I've found so I know you guys have some knowledge in this area.
If you have any tips, share them. Maybe you've got some ideas others haven't thought of.
One thing I've done is to insulate the small door at the back of my basement. It's about half the height of a regular door and opens up under my back porch and it really isn't used. I cut some fiberglass batts to fit between the screen door and the door itself. It not only insulates, it's stopped cold air infiltration too. Now more heat gets to the radiators rather than being lost to a cold basement.

 

[markthefixer]

Just a thought, keep vapor barriers in mind when insulating, the cold side will be colder and will gather condensation - which will translate into mold. Keep the water vapor where it is warm.

 

[peerson]

Disconnect all outside water hoses before a freeze occurs.

 

[Quadman2]

Disconnect all outside water hoses before a freeze occurs.

A footnote to the winter water issue ...don't forget to shut off the water supply to the outsde from the inside.

Q

 

[Quadman2]

And start up that old snow blower to make sure she still goes and there's fresh gas in the unit.

Q

 

[savatage1973]

Disconnect all outside water hoses before a freeze occurs.

To go one step further--most exterior water outlets also have a shut off valve inside the house within a foot or two of the external outlet--shut off the inside one and open the outside one to drain it.

For anything fueled that will be stored (unheated), either run it low or out of fuel and buy some Sta-Bil to put in it.

Stock up on back-up furnace filters (if applicable), or have your heating system inspected/serviced.

Clean/inspect chimneys (again, if applicable)--a house near my secondary residence just burned down last night because they fired up the woodburning stove and the chimney caught fire.

Winterize your vehicle--winter wiper blades, alcohol-based windshield washing fluid, spare blanket, jumper cables in the trunk, and maybe even an early oil change, so you don't have to deal with it until spring.

I have all new/newer windows, but those plastic kits seem to help a lot if you don't.

Stock up on canned/frozen prepared food--just in case.

Bag O Salt--or whatever snow melt you choose. I keep a 5 gal bucket O salt right inside the front door all winter, so I don't kill myself getting the mail.

I live in a nasty winter area, so just prepare for the worst. Good Luck!!!

 

[motorstereo]

And start up that old snow blower to make sure she still goes and there's fresh gas in the unit.

Q

It's also a good time to make sure the gas generator is ready to go to

 

[Wildcat]

Given that this is an older house and we're renting for now, I have been using the insulating foam on a couple of the older windows and the doorwall. When we first moved in, there was air pouring in around the front door, which faces north--I installed a strip of insulation that stopped the leaking. The family room has recessed lighting, and in the winter I can feel a faint bit of cold air coming down from each "bucket." There are insulators they sell for these, but there is no access to the top.

All power tools outdoors get the gas run out of the carburetors after draining the tanks. The gas just gets tossed into the snowblower if I fire it up, or I just dump the gas into one of the cars.

All pots outside need to be emptied of potting soil--it gets wet, freezes, and cracks the clay or plastic pots.

The landscaping lights all get pulled and brought in for the winter, so the batteries don't freeze.

The cars are already pretty much ready at all times--I only buy the premium windshield washer solvent, since they've cheapened the least expensive washer fluids to where they freeze in a thin film on the window if the temperature is below freezing. I use silicone wiper blades, so no winter worries there. The only thing to do is periodically check the tire pressure to make certain it is up where it needs to be.

All that's left, then, is to sit indoors for six months of crappy, gloomy weather, and curse every damned minute of it until we move in a few years...

 

[harman/kardon]

Check the paint of your wooden window shutters and the paint of your wooden window frames.

 

[Quadman2]

And most important...have a good bottle of rum set aside for making a hot toddy and/or some red wine to make it mulled to ward off the winter chills.

Q

 

[bashman]

I dig out my warmer jacket, just in case the temps dip into the high 30s. Brrrr! Oh, and get out the rum, per Quadman2.

 

[RickeyM]

A lot of pretty good tips there including winterizing the body (rum). Older homes are especially challenging. Many were built (at least in the mid-Atlantic region) with zero insulation. When we moved into the house it had a mechanical thermostat with a hole in the wall behind it that the wires came through. I wasn't loosing much heat there but the air passing through that hole was triggering the thermostat to fire the furnace several times a day. Taping that hole fixed that. Savatage1973 mentioned windows. Don't relax if your windows aren't that old. If the inner pane feels cold, those clear plastic insulator kits will help. I have a friend that moved into a newly built condo and figured his windows were new and good-to-go but he always complained the place felt drafty. I finally got him to put the plastic up and he was shocked when the wind blew and he saw the plastic "balloon up" with the air that was now being kept out.

 

[peerson]

I cut my own firewood. But for those that buy theirs, now is the time to order some. I usually burn around 2-1/2 to 3 Cords per year.

 

[Wildcat]

A lot of pretty good tips there including winterizing the body (rum). Older homes are especially challenging. Many were built (at least in the mid-Atlantic region) with zero insulation. When we moved into the house it had a mechanical thermostat with a hole in the wall behind it that the wires came through. I wasn't loosing much heat there but the air passing through that hole was triggering the thermostat to fire the furnace several times a day. Taping that hole fixed that. Savatage1973 mentioned windows. Don't relax if your windows aren't that old. If the inner pane feels cold, those clear plastic insulator kits will help. I have a friend that moved into a newly built condo and figured his windows were new and good-to-go but he always complained the place felt drafty. I finally got him to put the plastic up and he was shocked when the wind blew and he saw the plastic "balloon up" with the air that was now being kept out.

All good points there! There are many things in the house that can lead to air leaking in.

• The seals around the doors can be culprits. Mine had no seal whatsoever around the front door--I bought some sort of plastic roping that I tacked on to seal it up. For the doorwall in the back of the house, the fixed portion was leaking around the sides, so I sealed that with the spray insulating foam. For the moving part of it, I adjusted the doorwall so it would seal properly--it looks a little crooked now, but the draft is mostly gone.
• Windows--heck yeah, any window can be drafty. Even newer ones which aren't the greatest quality can leak worse than top-of-the-line windows. We have a window upstairs in the bedroom where the sash supporting it has sagged a little, so the whole window doesn't line up correctly. I foam the crap out of it each winter and it keeps the drafts away. Since that bedroom is upstairs in what is essentially a finished attic space (as all the houses around us have), the access doors to the rest of the attic had cold air pouring in around them--I foamed those also.
• Electrical outlets on an outside wall can leak air as well--they actually sell insulating foam sheets you can fit to the outlet cover to help block it.
• Recessed lighting, with no living space above it (exposed to an open attic, for instance) can leak air. I think they sell styrofoam domes you can install above them, but, that also requires access to the space above. But still, they can and do leak.

And I'm sure there are more.

I have a mystery leak. One of the cupboards in our kitchen is ice cold in winter. The house is built in 1940, but the addition was put on in the mid 80s. This cupboard is mounted to where the right side of it is against what would have originally been an outside wall, but is now inside. There are no holes in the cupboard to let air in, yet it seems this cupboard and the wall behind it are icy cold in the winter, and I can feel a tiny draft coming from the switchplate (outlets, plus the garbage disposal switch). The only thing I can think of is that this corner also backs up to the bathroom, and the sewer stack runs behind the wall in this corner from the basement up through the roof.

I cut my own firewood. But for those that buy theirs, now is the time to order some. I usually burn around 2-1/2 to 3 Cords per year.

In my next house, at the very minimum I would like to have a wood-burning stove to cover the kitchen, dining and family room area. But better yet, I'd like to get one of those fireplace inserts. I was going to do this in the house I had a decade ago, but ended up moving. Even if I didn't get completely away from the forced air, having supplemental wood-fired heat would help.

 

[peerson]

I had a Lennox, fuel efficient FP installed a few years ago. It will put out up to 85,000 BTU's. Sometimes it will get so hot we have to open a window. Even qualified for an energy tax credit. My house is "Open-Concept". So, the FP really heats the entire house pretty well. My gas bills in winter are around $50/mo.

 

[Alobar]

Most of my winterization is fairly automated. I have one circuit with a outdoor thermostat that comes on at around 34 deg that turns on some heat tape for plumbing, and a fan that moves air in a duct to warm a small room under the house.

My boat takes the most time to winterize. I make sure to add the right amount of fuel stabilizer to the tanks, and then run the engine with the garden hose until fuel stab is in the carbs and then pull the fuel line and run until the engine quits. Then I pull the plugs and use spray engine fog in the cylinders, spin the engine over with the plugs out to distribute the engine fog compound before reinstalling the plugs. Then I build a sort of tent over the boat with heavy tarps over it and ratchet strap it all down to the trailer to keep the snow shedding off the boat.

Make sure there are shear pins for the snowblower and enough sand to spread around. And get the studs on the jeep this week, snow in the forecast!

 

[sKiZo]

It's also a good time to make sure the gas generator is ready to go to

Had a bean burrito last night to test it ...

Oh. And wear long johns. Not only keep you warmer, but you can sew in a carbon filter to mitigate the effects of the gas generator to keep the dogs from yelping ...

 

[ConradH]

Some of the worst water problems can occur during the random February thaws or even rain storms, when the ground is frozen. Make sure your sump pump works and your foundation drainage is clear.

 

[sKiZo]

Insulation, insulation, and more insulation.

One of my favorite quotes ... from This Old House.

"I've seen houses so tight, you can heat them with farts and light bulbs."

Granted, I believe that was before LED bulbs became the Norm ... <G>

 

[SoCal Sam]

Winter, what's that? Ssssnnnoowww?? Can hardly pronounce the word. It's 90 degree in So Cal today. Will be about that all next week.