<div class="block">HGTV host Joe Mazza joined &#39;beWell to provide some tips on homecare as we enter the colder months. Mazza covers how to clean gutters, emptying waterlines and making windows draft-proof. </div>

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Be Well: Preparing Your Home for Winter

Home inspector Joe, when it's starting to get cold outside, we, as people used to get our hats, our, our gloves, our coats on. But what do we need to do to get our homes ready? Number one, water, water and cold ice. We don't want that. Ok. Your outdoor hose, we wanna get them drained. We wanna turn it off on the inside of the house, then drain everything that's in the pipe and the hose outside and then turn it off out here. But what happens if you don't, it'll freeze, some of these will freeze. That's an old school one right there. Some of these will freeze back into the house break and then you have a serious situation. So then you have water all over the outside and the inside of your house. Oh, that sounds like fun. But speaking of water, what if we have outdoor sprinkler systems? Yeah. Uh, right here. As a matter of fact, this one right here, you wanna get these shut down as well, just like that right there. This one here, the sprinkler Hs, you wanna get the lines blown out the air in the lines, the water, you wanna blow it out, blow all the water out of the. So, in the spring, when you turn it back on, you're not shooting water out all over the place because you have holes. But when you say blow the water and air out, how do we do that? If you use air to blow the water out and it blows all the water out of them. So, you know, you don't have, they don't break. And I've seen that so many times people turn them on in the spring and it's like, and now we know why. Exactly. Exactly. And what about the gutters? I know a lot of times we deal with gutters in the springtime the falls here, leaves are turning, leaves are gonna fall. They are going to get inside the gutters one way or the other. I have no trees around my house and they always land in my gutters. So, getting them cleaned out before the winter is here is so important. The gutters get clogged, it snows, it gets freezing cold. Ice forms. Ice dam. It goes underneath your roofing membrane. Once it gets under there, it goes under your sockets and it gets in your house, mold water, thousands of dollars in damage that could have been avoided. It sounds like fun. It's not just your gutters you have to worry about. It's the roof as well. So, all right now, I know a lot of people have air and cold that comes in through the windows. What do we do about that? You know, one thing you can help with, especially like these windows here. These are, these are great caulking in the outside portion of the windows, caulking in everything. You know, it helps, like you said, with the draft, with the water, you don't want any water getting inside here, it gets inside here, then it gets inside the water, water, water, we're back at it. Yes, we're back at it. So, and it also can help the draft. It can help the draft as well. Now, should you seal those holes up on the inside and outside? You can seal the seams up on the inside as well, but don't seal the windows shut. I just did a home inspection and they sealed every window. I couldn't open any windows. Oh my God, it was drafty. I said no, but that's wow. Good point. Ok. So what about when we go on vacation and keep the heat on in the house? Keep the water from freezing, but keep the heat on in the house. A lot of people turn the heat off, they go away. They don't wanna like, I'm not home. Why you, why you keep the heat on like, you know, 55 60 degrees. It's ok because if it gets too cold, then the pipes are gonna freeze on the inside of your home. Exactly. All right. Home inspector Joe. Thanks as always. Thank you.