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Its time to prepare your home for winter

Posted by Mike Parsons
September 12, 2008 at 01:25 AM

As the Fall and the colder months approach, here are a few things to remember to do to protect the integrity of your home.

Disconnect your hoses to exterior faucets. When it gets cold, water can freeze in a hose and back up into the spigot causing your interior water lines to break.

Install your storm windows.Chances are if your home is 1960 or older like in Victorian Village, Clintonville, Old Arlington, Grandview, and Old Worthington, you probably have storm windows that you change out with screens for the warmer months. Over the years many homeowners have installed storm windows on the outside of their wood windows to maintain the character of the original windows and add protection and insulation. Time to put the storm windows back in. If you don't have storm windows that can be a worthwhile expense and can really improve your utility bills in the colder months.

Winterize your lawn equipment.Make sure to do oil changes on all of your gas powered lawn equipment. Also, it is recommended to run your gas powered mower and trimmer until the gas is gone and it dies. This will prevent the carburetor from being clogged by old fuel. Gas can expire, evaporate, and get old. This exercise sometimes leads folks to condo living.LOL

Test your smoke detectors.Change the batteries on your smoke detectors every year. Also, smoke detectors should be replaced every 10 years.

Plant bulbs.Fall is a great time to plant those flower bulbs so they come up in the spring. The ideal ground temp to plant bulbs is 50 degrees, typically about 6 weeks before the first freeze.

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