3 Winter Prep Steps to Protect Your Colorado Home

By Greg Smith

ColoradoHomeSource represents the region’s finest properties with exceptional skill, using the most innovative technologies currently available. ColoradoHomeSource offers ultimate privacy, security, speed, and efficiency. The team’s years of full-time experience have given them a clear understanding of the mindset of home buyers and sellers and a thorough understanding of the regional marketplace.

On the Front Range, the first hard freeze often arrives before anyone is quite ready. One cold night is all it takes to crack a pipe, back up a gutter, or strain a furnace that has sat idle all summer. The reassuring part is that the tasks which prevent those problems are quick, inexpensive, and easy to finish before winter settles in. Here are three worth doing now.

1. Have your sprinklers blown out. Water left sitting in irrigation lines freezes, expands, and cracks pipes, and you may not discover the damage until a leak surfaces in May or a broken line sends water toward the house. A professional blowout usually costs under $100, a small price compared with the thousands a repair can cost. While you are at it, disconnect the hoses from your hose bibs.

2. Clean your gutters once the leaves are down. Clogged gutters let water back up and freeze into ice dams, often letting water find its way inside a home. One method we like is straightforward: get up on the roof with a leaf blower and walk the gutter line, clearing everything as you go. On most houses, the whole job takes about twenty minutes.

3. Change your furnace filter. You are about to switch the house from air conditioning to heat, so this is the ideal time to swap in a fresh filter. Changing it regularly, once a month or once a quarter depending on whether pets are in the home, takes only a couple of minutes and can add years to the life of the furnace. There is simply no reason to skip it.

Three small jobs, a little time, and a winter with far fewer headaches and surprise repair bills. If you need a trusted name for a sprinkler blowout or gutter cleaning, call us. We keep a great vendor list, and we are always happy to share it. Call or text us at 303-543-5720, email us at greg@boulderhomesource.com, or visit blogboulderhomesource.com.