North Olmsted, Ohio... Time to grab your coats, scarves and mittens – the cold weather season has officially arrived. With temperatures dropping across the country, it’s essential to make sure your home and yard is prepared to face the challenges freezing temperatures and snowstorms can bring. Here, Moen, a leader in water experiences, shares five top tips for homeowners to prep their homes for the cold.
Store and Secure your Outdoor Living Space
As homeowners start bundling up to retreat indoors, it’s also time to bring outdoor furniture in for hibernation. Patio sets, lawn decorations and outdoor equipment can all face rusting from water exposure and breakage from large amounts of snow and ice if left unprotected. To prevent these issues, homeowners can invest in waterproof patio covers for larger items like tables and grills. For smaller objects such as chairs or children's toys like sand tables, store those away in dry areas like garages, sheds, or basements. Also make sure to pack away any outdoor pillows, planters or decorative signs.Protect your Pipes
While the snow and ice outside might look magical, that thought quickly fades when pipes burst or spring a leak. When water freezes, it can expand and put pressure on the home’s pipes, increasing the chance of them bursting. Having weak or corroded pipes poses an even greater risk. A great way to proactively protect your plumbing is through a smart leak detection device, such as the Moen® Flo Smart Water Monitor and Shutoff. This innovative product connects directly to the home’s main water line and has the ability to constantly monitors water flow rate and pressure to identify potential problems – like low flow rate or high pressure that can indicate a frozen pipe. If an issue is found, it will alert the homeowner in real-time via the smartphone app so they can take action. It can even be set to automatically turn off the water before damage occurs. As a bonus, some insurance companies will offer discounts to homeowners who install a smart leak detection device, helping save money and providing peace of mind the home is protected.On top of protecting plumbing with smart leak detection, homeowners also shouldn’t forget to check on sprinklers and exterior hoses. Be sure to properly shut off water supplies to these areas and drain any existing water to eliminate the chance they’ll cause a frozen or burst pipe.
Beat the Chill by Checking Doors and Windows
Ensuring doors and windows are properly sealed can act as a vital barrier against winter’s harsh conditions. By preventing heat loss and maintaining consistent indoor temperatures, proper sealing helps reduce heating and energy costs while also enhancing comfort. To determine where better insulation is needed, start by feeling around for cold drafts coming in through windows or doors and even unexpected areas like electrical sockets. To block the chill, homeowners can do easy upgrades like weatherstripping around windows and doors, covering windows entirely with shrink film, adding covers around electrical sockets and using slide-on draft blockers at door bottoms, minimizing air leaks and keeping their homes warm this winter.Prep your Heating and Alarm Systems
A home’s heating system tends to get a workout in the colder months, so homeowners should check on the status of their HVAC system to make sure it’s running properly. Hire a professional to do a check and see if any repairs are needed, and make sure to install a fresh air filter. Getting your furnace in top shape will help maintain a comfortable temperature, keep utility bills steady and help prevent fires. Don’t leave out carbon monoxide and smoke alarms either. Fires from space heaters or CO leaks from gas furnaces can be dangerous, so having functional alarms can be lifesaving if disaster strikes.Give Extra Attention to your Home’s Exterior
Providing a little extra love and care to your home’s exterior and lawn can do wonders for easing stress all winter long – and as spring approaches! To avoid a roofing collapse or leaks from heavy snowfall, homeowners should check their roof – or have a pro check it – for any prior damage and address it as soon as possible. It’s also essential to clean out gutters to remove debris buildup and trim tree branches that may pose risks for falling if piled with heavy snow or ice. Don’t forget to take inventory on snow removal tools and materials, and stock up on any supplies you might need, like snow shovels and salt to be ready for when bad weather hits.Prioritizing the right areas to add to a winterization checklist – inside and out – can be a significant factor in how much wear and tear winter storms cause on the home – and help ensure a smooth, stress-free cold weather season.
For more information from Moen, visit moen.com.
ABOUT MOEN
Moen is a leader in water experiences, offering a vast array of stylish and innovative kitchen and bath faucets, showerheads, accessories, bath safety products, kitchen sinks, garbage disposals, leak detection products and connected home offerings for residential applications that give consumers more power than ever before to understand and control the water that flows through their homes. These thoughtful designs deliver an exceptional user experience and elevate how people interact with water daily. In addition, Moen® Commercial offers superior-performing products that can deliver lower lifetime costs for today's facilities.Moen is part of Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc. (NYSE: FBIN), a brand, innovation and channel leader focused on exciting, supercharged categories in the home products, security and commercial building markets. Moen anchors Water Innovations (WINN), which also includes several brands under the House of Rohl® including Emtek®, Perrin & Rowe®, ROHL®, Riobel®, Shaws® and Victoria + Albert®. Fortune Brands’ other brands include Fiberon® composite decking and railing products; Master Lock®, Yale® residential, August® and Sentry® Safe security products; LARSON® storm doors and Therma-Tru® entry door systems. For more information, please visit www.FBIN.com.
CONTACT:
Samantha Eastman or Emily Baker
Falls & Co.
(216) 696-0229
seastman@fallsandco.com
ebaker@fallsandco.com