8 Tips to Winterize Your Home: 2025 Checklist 8 Tips to Winterize Your Home: 2025 Checklist
If you're a new homeowner, you may not know what steps to take when it comes to preparing your home for the colder months and disruptive winter weather that comes along with them. Winterizing your home isn't just important if you want to keep your house warm and dry during the winter months, it also helps prevent having to make expensive repairs come springtime. The best time to winterize is generally before the first frost of the year sets in.
Below, we've outlined several helpful tips to help you prepare your home for winter weather. While this list does not include every possible step you might take, from making sure your roof and chimney don't need any critical repairs before snow falls to protecting your home from any drafts before cold weather arrives, we'll get you started with a checklist to winterize your home. Let's go!
1. Check Your Roof and Attic
Ensuring your roof and attic are secure against winter weather and frigid temperatures is a good place to start your home winterization. There are a couple of ways to approach inspecting your roof before the ice and snow arrive. First, grab a pair of binoculars if you have them and head to the edge of your property or across the street and take a look to see if there are any obvious flaws in the roof tiles -- keep an eye out for any missing tiles or spaces between tiles where moisture could seep into your home. If you have a ladder and are able to do so, you may want to use it to carefully climb onto your roof and remove any moss, leaves, or other debris. Next, head inside your attic or loft area and look for any damp areas resulting from roof leaks. Be sure to look up at your roof from the inside as well for any light leaks that could indicate loose or missing tiles. While you're in your attic, check out your insulation to make sure there aren't any areas that need to be replaced -- this will help you maintain a lower heating bill once the cold air arrives.
Roof issues like those mentioned above should be an immediate red flag as you get your home ready for winter. It's important to consult an experienced roofing professional when addressing any needed roof repairs. Keep in mind that quick fixes like spray foams or store-bought waterproofing solutions could damage your home and necessitate further repairs.
2. Check Your Chimney
While you're up on your roof, you can take another important step to winterize your house by taking a look at your chimney as well (if you have one). Over the course of the year, the brickwork is exposed to rain, wind, and snow so making this a part of your winterizing routine is a good reminder to check it for any damage. Minor cracks or other damage may be able to be repaired with patching cement or silicone caulk (which you can find at any hardware store). If you spot any significant damage, it's best to contact a professional to complete the work.
If you have a chimney, you likely know that it can be a major source of cold air drafts during the winter months. Taking steps to address these drafts is another important part of making sure your home is ready for winter and will help you avoid costly winter repairs. Installing a chimney cap, draft excluder, or chimney balloon are all great ways to prevent cold air from entering your home through this avenue.
3. Clean Your Gutters
Making sure you have clear gutters is another crucial step to take before snow and ice arrive that will pay off in terms of helping you avoid costly damage to your house down the line. Removing dead leaves, branches, and other debris before winter arrives helps to ensure that melting water is directed away from your roof instead of forming ice dams and seeping into your house. Also, be sure to clear the downpipes and drains at the bottom of your gutters. If you're wondering what tool to use to do all of this work, a gutter brush or gutter wand will help make the process a whole lot easier.
4. Protect Your Doors and Windows from Drafts
Ahead of the winter season, you'll want to take steps to help keep warm air inside your home and prevent heat loss. Weatherproofing around windows and doors is a relatively easy way to get your home ready for winter and will save you money on your heating bill at the same time.
Head to your local hardware store to buy some weather stripping to put around all of your doors and windows. If there are any larger gaps you can use caulking to seal them (this is a great strategy for taking care of any cracks or gaps in your siding as well). Buying a door cushion draft excluder to put at the foot of your exterior doors is another good way to keep your home warm during winter.
Having energy-efficient windows and storm doors goes a long way toward keeping the colder air out and warmer air in during wintertime, but if you have older windows in your home you can use window film on the inside of your windows to help keep the cold out. You can also buy thermal curtains for your windows for an extra layer of protection from the cold.
If you're unsure where you may have drafts, you can take a candle, lighter, or match and hold it near gaps in your windows and doors. If the flame wavers at all, it's likely being caused by air coming into your house from outside.
5. Insulate and Prepare Your Pipes
Frozen and bursting pipes can be one of the costliest outcomes of failing to properly winterize. The first and most important thing you can do to winterize your pipes is make sure you know where your water main shutoff is so you can access it as quickly as possible if you have a pipe burst. Before the first frost of the season be sure to drain the water from your outside hoses, taps, and sprinkler systems and shut off all water to outside faucets at the isolating valve. Be sure to house your hose somewhere warm and dry to ensure it's ready to go when you need it next spring. You can also use foam insulation tubes around exterior water pipes to help prevent your pipes from freezing.
As far as inside taps go, you should always drip your faucets when temperatures reach 20° F or lower to avoid any burst pipes. This simply consists of turning the water on just enough so that cold water drips from your faucet and prevents water from backing up and freezing inside your pipes (resulting in an expensive plumbing bill).
6. Have Your HVAC System and Furnace Serviced
Imagine you're about to have family over for Thanksgiving and the temperature drops at the same time. You go to turn on your heat so that your home is a comfortable temperature when everyone arrives and...nothing happens.
By checking your heating system and having your furnace serviced at least once a year, you'll ensure an emergency scenario like the one described above doesn't happen to you. A couple of easy ways to winterize your furnace are to replace the filter and schedule an annual service with a professional to make sure everything is in order to heat your home all winter long.
7. Have All Snow Removal Equipment Easily Accessible
This may seem like common sense, but it's important to have everything you'll need when a snowstorm hits readily available. Get your snowblower gassed up before the first flakes start to fall, and make sure it's somewhere that you can easily access once the snow is on the ground. The same goes for your shovels, de-icing salt, and sand. Having your snowblower serviced once a year is also a good idea, and at the very least you should try running it once or twice before winter officially arrives to ensure it's working. Stock up on any other snow removal tools like shovels, salt, and sand ahead of time as they are often out of stock once winter arrives.
8. Protect Your Home If You'll Be Away
This one is just plain common sense, and it's not just specific to the winter season. If you're going to be away from home (heading south for the winter?), especially for a prolonged period of time, have a friend, family member, or neighbor swing by your house periodically to ensure everything is in good shape. This helps ensure that if something goes wrong while you're away (during winter this could be a burst pipe or downed tree branch), someone catches it as soon as possible to minimize the damage.
With these tips for winterizing, you'll be well ahead of the game when it comes to keeping your home safe from extreme winter weather. This may not be the end of your list, however! Consider whether you need to contract plow services, remove decaying trees near your home that could fall under the weight of heavy ice and snow, or you may need a backup generator to ensure you can maintain power during a winter storm. If you need to make more significant upgrades to your home to get it ready for winter, a Home Equity Line of Credit, or HELOC, is a great option! A HELOC is a type of mortgage solution that allows you to borrow money against the equity in your home, typically to fund home improvement projects or consolidate high-interest-rate debt. Reach out to one of our expert loan officers today for more information on how a HELOC can help you achieve your home maintenance and renovation goals!
