Steps to Winterizing Your Home: Have a Friend On Call

Extreme winter weather can leave neighborhoods and communities without power or other public services for long periods of time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warns.

It’s a smart idea to prepare your home for such winter weather emergencies as well as cold weather throughout the season that can cause minor issues to evolve into larger problems – with potential damage to your property or risk of personal injury.

Whether it’s for your primary residence or a second home you plan to leave vacant until spring, here’s a step you may not have thought of: Have a Friend on Call.

If you go away for vacation or on a business trip, it’s good to have a friend, relative or neighbor on call for your temporarily vacant house. Especially if a winter storm occurs while you’re gone, you want someone to make sure your power stays on and even shovel the sidewalk to prevent slipping hazards.

If the house is vacant: Your HVAC may be in perfect condition with everything insulated, but you still shouldn’t leave the house unchecked for the entire winter.  “I wouldn’t want someone to think that a property can sit vacant for months at a time without someone coming to check on it. You wouldn’t do that with your car,” explains Anne Cope, chief engineer at the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety in Richburg, South Carolina.

If you have friends or relatives nearby who can check on the house every few weeks, ask them to do so. Otherwise, hiring a local handyman to regularly check in can help ensure the heat continues to work, the power stays on and no critters manage to break their way into the living space. Even if you have security cameras and sensors, you need someone who can come by on short notice if an issue occurs.

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Photo Credit:  Jacob Lund / Shutterstock.com