🏠 Winterize Your Home

An hour now saves a burst pipe, a cold snap, and a plumber's emergency bill later.

The One-Hour Version

If you only have an hour, do these five things: disconnect the garden hoses, change the furnace filter, test the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, put the snow shovel where you can reach it, and check that the flashlights work. The rest can wait a week. These cannot.

Inside

Furnace. Change the filter (a clogged filter makes the furnace work harder and can shut it down on the coldest night of the year). If you have not had the furnace serviced in a while, book it before the rush.

Pipes. Know where your main water shut-off is before you need it. Insulate exposed pipes in cold spots: the basement, the garage, and any pipe on an outside wall. On bitter nights, letting a tap drip on an outside wall can keep a pipe from freezing.

Alarms. Test every smoke alarm and carbon monoxide alarm, and change the batteries. Carbon monoxide is colourless and odourless; the alarm is the only warning you get.

Drafts. Feel around windows and doors on a windy day. Weatherstripping and door sweeps are cheap, and a drafty house is a heating bill with the window open.

Ceiling fans. Reverse them to spin clockwise on low. It pushes warm air back down from the ceiling, where it has been hiding.

Outside

Hoses and taps. Disconnect every garden hose and drain it. If you have an outside tap shut-off inside the house, close it and open the outside tap to drain the line. A frozen hose bib is a burst pipe in the spring.

Gutters. Clear the leaves out before the first freeze. Clogged gutters make ice dams, and ice dams make leaks.

Walkways. Stock up on salt or sand now, while the stores still have it. Mark the edges of the walkway and the driveway if the snow gets deep.

Yard. Bring in anything that should not freeze: the hose reel, the plant pots, the patio furniture cushions. Drain the lawn mower or run it dry.

If You Go Away

Never turn the heat fully off in winter, even for a weekend. Leave it at 15°C or higher, and have someone check the house. A furnace that quits while you are away is how pipes burst.

General home maintenance advice for Canadian winters. For your specific home, ask a local contractor or your home insurer.

← Back to Guides & Know-How