Getting Ready for Winter

Get prepared!

With the winter weather coming in the near future. Are you ready for it? Is your house ready for it? 

 

Let's talk about a few things that can help you and your home.  First thing, are your gutters cleaned out?  We can all agree that best practice is to make sure that all debris is out of your gutters, do not forget about the downspouts. Make sure to check them as well. Sometimes the elbows coming from the top, at the bottom of the gutter, is a place that is often unseen and forgotten when doing the gutter cleaning.  

 

Another thing to consider, do you have an area where you get icicles forming. Is that a high traffic area, are you walking through that area regularly?  If you do Heat Tape may be something to consider. While the sun during the day is melting some of the snow on your roof top, the water needs a place to go. It can either go into your gutters, down the downspout as it is intended to, or it can get stuck either on the roof or in the gutter causing some icicles or ice issues. We have all seen this scenario. Heat tape can help keep these icicles off your gutters. They keep the gutter warm as the sun is setting and the air temperature is dropping. The metal will cool off faster than the water will start to refreeze. keeping the Gutters warm for just a few hours will help prevent the icicles forming on the gutters. This is also true for Heat Tape on the roof. It can give the water a place to run down to your gutters and get away from your home. 

 

Drain Tile. Do you have a drain tile connected to your downspout? Some people like to disconnect these do they do not have water running down into them freezing and causing damage to the tile or the downspout. An easy solution is to incorporate the heat tape through the drain tile as well.