How to Get Your South Carolina Home Winter Ready

Unlike summertime when the weather is usually steady and stays around 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the weather in the winter is much less uniform and temperatures average about 60 degrees Fahrenheit during the day but can drop to about 38 degrees Fahrenheit overnight. It’s important to prepare your home for cooler weather, even if it doesn’t quite get cold enough to snow most of the time.

Our team of window and gutter experts here at Litchfield Seamless Gutters & Windows want to give you a head start on getting everything in your home ready for winter before it costs you more money in repairs down the road.

• Your winter home prep should start at the top of your home with a roof inspection. Your roof is a vital (and major) piece of your home, and if things are failing with the roof during the winter, you’re going to find a lot of other problems on your hands. When you’re getting your roof inspected for the winter, you should look for signs of leaks; shingles that have curled or buckled; shingles that are missing or have cracked; and loss of granule on your roof.
  
• Next, make sure your gutters are clear or leaves and other debris so that they continue to function properly throughout the winter. The best time to clean your gutters is during the fall.
  
• After you’ve made sure the gutters are clear, it’s time to prep your pipes for the winter. Even though it doesn’t get too frigid in the winter in South Carolina, winterizing your home’s pipes is still important because dealing with pipes bursting is every homeowner’s nightmare. To prevent this, allow a small trickle of water to run from your faucet. This will keep the water moving in your pipes and help to keep them from freezing and bursting.
  
• You should also open cabinet doors that are under the sink to keep warm air circulating around the pipes and seal external openings such as basement doors, windows, and crawl spaces. This not only keeps your home warmer during the winter, but it also keeps your pipes warm.
  
• Don’t forget to disconnect any outdoor hoses and drain any remaining water from outdoor spigots before the weather gets too cold. If you have an automatic sprinkler system, you should be sure to drain that, too.