Photo of Steve Jan 2012
2. OUTSIDE TAPS: Isolate (which is a technical term for turn off) all of your outside taps. There should be an isolating tap in your new home to do this – if you don’t know where it is check out your new Home manual. This will stop the pipes from freezing up when it gets really cold.
3. EXTERNAL WOOD: External wooden doors can expand in the wet, so grease or rub with candle wax along the edges which will stop them from sticking.
4. INSULATION CHECK: When it snows for the first time check out your roof – if it is covered in birds and no snow, this means that your loft insulation is insufficient and heat is escaping. Nice for the birds, but very bad for the environment and your heating bills!
5. HEATING: Test and run your heating before it gets really cold – you don’t want to get desperate and be calling out emergency plumbers.
6. GOING AWAY? If you are going away, leave your heating / radiators / storage heating on at the lowest setting to prevent freezing pipes and a horrible shock when you get back.
7. CONDENSATION:
8. OVERFLOW: Check your overflow pipes – are they dripping? If so they will freeze up and could cause a slip hazard so the drips must be stopped!
9. QUICK ROOF CHECK: Do any slates or tiles look loose? If so you need to check them out as you don’t want any damp penetrating your loft space.
10. RENDERING: Check the rendering & pointing on the outside walls of your home – any cracks wider than a £1 coin will need attention as frost could penetrate and cause more damage.
If you have any questions you can contact Steve Nancarrow snagging expert of New Home Advisor on 0844 409 7301
http://www.NewHomeAdvisor.co.uk
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
