Get Your Home Ready for Winter

Get Your Home Ready for Winter

Winter months bring us cold temperatures and darker nights (and mornings). As we are spending more time indoors, we want to be comfortable and keep our homes as effective against the cold and dark as possible.

This may involve hiring some portable heaters, ensuring the heat can’t escape around your windows and having an emergency power cut kit to hand. Get your home ready for winter using our tips below.

 

1. Hire Heaters

With the cost of gas energy bills rising, you may be concerned about turning on the central heating. Hiring portable heating can give you more targeted results, as they can be placed nearer your sitting place. Radiators may be too far away for you to feel the benefit.

Radiators also release their heat into the room, whereas a portable heater can benefit you more directly. Keep your heating bill low, while staying warm.

• SPEEDY TOP TIP: Still use central heating to keep away damp in the home. To keep costs down, turn off radiators in rooms which aren’t used and utilise a timer, so it only comes on when people are in the house

Test your heating before the cold weather and winter arrive, which includes central heating and temporary heating. Bleed radiators, get your boiler serviced, and clean filters and vents.

 

2. Have Emergency Lighting to Hand

Whether it be taking the bins out, watching the dog have a wander around the garden before bed, or checking the gate hasn’t blown open in the high winds, keep some torches and handheld lighting inside. It is a good idea to keep one by each door, as well as everyone in the home having a personal torch.

Grab one when you need to go outside if you don’t have lighting in your garden. If you do have lighting, still have some backup options, but also test the lighting regularly.

While this is technically an outdoor winter preparation tip, you need to keep plenty of spare lighting in the home. Candles, torches, and battery-powered lighting are all essential in the case of a power cut, too.

 

3. Create a Power Cut Kit

As well as the emergency lighting, think about what else you’d need in your power cut kit. Portable phone chargers should be available and fully charged, keep blankets to hand for warmth and try to have some books or board games to hand for entertainment.

 

4. Seal Gaps Around Windows and Doors

Unless your windows and doors are brand-spanking new, a bit of heating will likely be lost through gaps around them (and cold draughts will be coming in).

You can purchase sealant strips which go around your windows and doors and won’t be opened over winter. Also, look at your loft insulation and get some installed if you don’t already have it in place.

There are plenty of energy-saving schemes available to help you save money on loft and wall insulation.

 

5. Know How to Dry Clothes Indoors

You will have to dry your clothes indoors over winter if you don’t have a tumble drier. Brush up on how best to dry clothes indoors – hiring a dehumidifier will keep damp to a minimum, which will be the best option if you are constantly trying to dry wash loads for the whole family.

 

6. Check Your Pipes

Burst pipes happen because of the cold temperatures. Water expands as it freezes, which causes pressure on the pipes from the inside out. Insulate any pipes outdoors to prevent this from happening, or you could also suffer from flooding as well as the cold temperatures this winter.

• SPEEDY TOP TIP: Ensure your home insurance and buildings insurance covers flooding damage

Read our guide on how to recover from a flood. Hopefully, you won’t need it, but it is good to know how to act as quickly as possible.

 

7. Prevent Damp

As well as using a dehumidifier when drying clothing, there are some other things you can do to keep damp at a minimum in the home over winter. Keep kitchen doors closed when cooking, and bathroom doors closed when showering.

Try to open the window in these rooms, if possible, when showering or cooking. When finished, wipe down and dry all surfaces. Wait until the moisture has gone before reopening the doors.

You need to keep moisture and damp to a minimum because it can have a detrimental effect on the walls, structure, and furniture of your property.

 

8. Check Your Home Security

The darker nights mean an increased risk of burglaries and break-ins. From walking into your home through an unlocked door to breaking into your shed and stealing tools, darkness gives opportunists more time to get their job done.

Check that gates and fences are properly secured as a first barrier. Motion detection lighting is a good idea on main paths. Then, you’re going to want to check windows which aren’t used in winter are locked. Get into the habit of locking your front door immediately when you arrive home, too.

If you have CCTV cameras, check they’re working daily. You might want to update your security system if it isn’t working well in the dark, too.

Have insurance in place which you can rely on should worst come to worst.

 

 

• IS THERE WINTER PRODUCT HIRE NEAR ME?

Yes. Speedy Services, the UK's leading tool hire company, have a range of winter products for hire nationwide. This includes heating, lighting and dehumidifiers.

Speedy has more than 200 service centres across the nation, hire counters in selected B&Qs and nationwide 4-hour delivery, rotavator hire has never been easier.

You’ll find all the tools you need right here. Why not start planning your next DIY project and open a Speedy account today online and instore.