With Winter right around the corner, we welcome back our very own Ed Sullivan of S+H Construction to walk us through how to winterize your home. Sarah, Bruce and Ed share the many and things you should keep in mind as the colder months approach, so you’re not dealing with a disaster next spring!
What is the first thing people should think about in the fall to winterize their home on the exterior?
Ed: The most impostant thing is that your sillcock’s should be covered
Ok, let us slow down, explain to us what a sillcock is?
Ed: Yea, sillcock’s is a fancy way of saying your exterior water faucet. If you don’t turn those off, or cover them (if you don’t have the option to shit the water valve off) it has the potential to freeze, and you have a high chance of it expanding and cracking, which will cause water in your basement.
So the things that stick out on the side of your house. It’s the interface between liquid water, and in a cold environment, if not properly taken care of, can turn into a disaster. Explain to us what it means to ‘turn it off.’
Ed: Majority of times there is a shutoff inside, a few feet from the foundation. You don’t want the water coming close to tha, so you’ll want to shit it off and then open the line on the outside so that it can drain.
What else should you consider?
Ed: Definitely gutters. I live in the suburbs so there are a lot of trees and leaves. So want to take care of that before the snow. Everything is going to decay, clog, and then water is dripping down the face of your house. There’s a lot of potential problems with that.
Gutters are the most important thing to maintain on a regular basis. If you have things backing up, they will get all mushy and then freeze. Explain how that can be a disaster.
Ed: Yes, I mean thee main thing to be careful of is making sure your gutters don’t freeze. When something freezes it expands, and gutters aren’t meant to expand, which means they crack. If they’re clogged or cracked, the water isn’t flowing through them as they should, meaning the water is getting into places where it shouldn’t and has the potential to be really damaging and really expensive.