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When the cold weather arrives, there’s a tendency among homeowners to focus on the interior—namely, our personal comfort and the utility bills. That’s perfectly sensible—no one wants to shiver in their own house, and no one wants to be slammed with an enormous utility bill, either. But the exterior of your house is just as important.
Heavy snow and icy buildup during extended periods of severe cold can really take a toll on your house. Snow and ice combined with melt/freeze cycles during sunny periods can do some serious (and often completely silent) damage to your home in a variety of ways, from water intrusion through your roof to ice-heavy tree branches crashing into the house. If you live somewhere where you can expect to be buried in snow and ice at some point this winter, here are the products you need to protect your house.
Clear snow with a roof rake
Snow is heavy, and your roof is designed to handle only so much of it. The chances that your roof is going to collapse are probably pretty minimal, but that doesn’t mean letting a ton of snow and ice sit on it for weeks at a time is good for your roof or the structure under it. At the same time, climbing up onto your roof to shovel or sweep snow off is not the safest thing to do. Instead, keep a snow rake on hand. Designed to be used from the ground, a snow rake is a simple tool that lets you scrape a lot of snow off your roof safely, easing the snow load and minimizing the chances that water will infiltrate the house. Just keep in mind that if you install roof cable to prevent ice dams (see below), you’ll need to be super careful using a roof rake, as you can easily snag the cable and yank it loose.
Use a sewer skewer to melt snow and ice in vents
One often-overlooked problem caused by cold, snowy weather is ice buildup in roof and furnace vents. Sewer vents on the roof and furnace vents that draw in clean air and expel exhaust from your heating system can get clogged with ice, which can cause your heat to malfunction and pose a severe health hazard if fumes build up inside the home. A sewer skewer is a simple solution. It’s just a hunk of copper, really, but copper is an excellent conductor, so it absorbs heat from the sun (and your home’s own gases as they rise up) and radiates that heat back out, melting any snow and ice that form in the vent. It’s shaped to move the melting water away from the vent so it doesn’t just drip down and re-freeze. It’s incredibly simple to install (be careful on your roof, though) and can save you from disaster.
Install heated roof cables
Ice dams are layers of ice that form at the edge of your roof, preventing proper drainage. Unchecked, ice dams can really do a number on your roof and even the structure of your house. Preventing ice dams can be relatively easy, however—just install some heated roof cables. Attached to the edge of your roof in a zig-zag pattern, roof cables ensure that ice dams can’t form, and melting snow and ice can drain properly into your gutters.
Use covers on exterior faucets
A common way ice and freezing temperatures can damage your house is through exterior faucets and spigots. Because they extend outside the insulated interior of the house, they’re very susceptible to freezing, and that ice can make its way into the pipe behind it, leading to a burst pipe and a very expensive problem. The solution, though, is not expensive—for about $11, a faucet cover will keep your exterior faucets ice-free and water safely inside your pipes where it belongs. Affix one to every exposed faucet or spigot around the house and you’ll have one less thing to worry about.
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Cut back problem tree branches with a mini chainsaw
If you have trees near your home, heavy ice and snow can snap off branches, which then smack into your roof or walls—and those ice-laden branches will be heavy when they hit your house. Being a little proactive and trimming back branches—especially old, dead ones—is the best way to prevent that from happening. If you don’t want to call a professional to trim back a few branches, pick up a mini-chainsaw to get the job done. If your branches are a little more than a mini can handle, a full-size chainsaw might be needed—but be sure you know how to handle it, especially if you’re going to be climbing a ladder to use it.
Prevent ice clogs with gutter heaters
Like ice dams on your roof, your gutters can become clogged with snow and ice, preventing proper drainage and leading to rot and water intrusion. Gutter heaters are an easy solution that prevents ice and snow buildup, ensuring everything drains away from your roof and your house as intended.
Use a filler sealer on hardscapes
The freeze/melt cycle can be particularly hard on your hardscapes, including driveways and patios. Meltwater gets into small cracks and then freezes, expanding and widening those cracks. After a while, your pavement or asphalt is chewed up and needs replacing. You can do a few things to prevent (or at least slow down) this destruction. Filling cracks in asphalt or concrete as they form with a filler sealer means water can’t get into them in the first place. And sealing your asphalt or concrete surfaces will protect them during those weeks when ice is sitting there, melting and freezing over and over again as temperatures fluctuate.
