Sure you can’t control the weather, but you can protect your home from severe weather damage with proactive decisions that can save you significant amounts of money and frustration by minimizing the possibilities of developing problems such as ice dams and broken pipes which cause moisture related issues within your home and other damages which are much simpler to prevent than repair.
Here in Northeast Ohio, winter snow can be harsh on your home without proper preparation. Since your roof and attic space as well as any water pipes that are located in unconditioned spaces are some of the most common sources of problems that occur during severe weather, wise homeowners should complete a basic inspection and any needed upgrades (or hire an HVAC professional to complete the procedures for you) on all high risk zones of your home before severe weather arrives. The minimum tasks to protect your home from severe weather include:
- Checking for and/or installing sufficient attic insulation to keep your attic space close to the outdoor temperature. Warm attics tend to create ice dams by causing snow to melt on your rooftop where it can drain down to your roof’s edge, potentially refreezing and entering your walls and creating numerous moisture related problems.
- Clearing gutters of all leaves and debris to provide proper drainage of rain and melting snow.
- Ensuring adequate ventilation in your attic for proper airflow and to further reduce the chances of ice dams forming on your roof.
- Using insulation sleeves or carefully wrapping all water pipes passing through unconditioned spaces within your home and those exposed to exterior conditions to prevent broken pipes. Additionally, when severe weather hits, making sure to leave a trickle of water flowing and keeping cabinet doors open to warm the pipes within these spaces offers additional broken pipe protection.
If you live in the Greater Cleveland area and would like to learn more about how to protect your home from severe weather, the professionals at Stack Heating & Cooling would love to help you; we’ve been helping homeowners meet all of their home comfort needs since 1976!
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Cleveland, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about severe weather protection and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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