Beat The Cold Snap: Five Ways to Winter Proof Your Home
There’s a lot of talk how warm this Winter has been but of course temperatures only need to drop to zero to potentially freeze water in pipes and cause all sorts of problems for owners of property particularly if empty. Here are five easy things that you can do to make sure you’re not affected.
- Lag Pipes
Part of the problem of the current hurry to insulate homes is that lofts are now very cold and water pipes, tanks and so on will have to be lagged to stop them from freezing in cold weather. Don’t forget to lag outside taps as well as these can easily freeze up.
- Leave Heating On Low
Even if you are going away for a just a few days, in our view it’s a false economy to switch off the heating. Leave them low particularly overnight. If the temperature drops especially low, open the loft hatch, even a crack will allow heat to circulate and reduce the possibility of burst pipe.
- Security
Houses can look very obviously empty on dark winter evenings. So invest in timer lights to make it look occupied even when you’re out.
- Check Your Insurance
Make sure it’s up to date and contents and buildings are correctly valued just in case the worst happens. Remember that most policies will not pay out for property that has been empty for more than 30 days.
- Energy
It’s never too late to look at changing energy suppliers. Do it now and you could save £100’s on your Winter fuel bill.
