Getting your Central Oregon home ready for winter
If you haven’t started getting your home winter-ready, you’d better get a move on it. With the temperatures dropping, it’s time to start making that winter checklist to prepare your home for the cold.
Bend’s West Side Ace Hardware store Manager Gil Denfeld explained the first step in winterizing your home: “The main things are to close up your foundation so you keep the cold air out during the wintertime.”
He also had a tip to keep your heating bill down. “If your house is older, your windows may not be thermal pane or insulated. So what you want to do is use an insulating kit for that.”
Denfeld also recommended buying foundation vent covers and outdoor faucet covers. You’ll also want to make sure your pipes don’t freeze when the temperature drops. Homeowner Ted Wolf says he does this by “putting the insulation in and around the perimeter of the pipe, and then I put the plastic over it, and then I will put a cap over it.”
Another huge step in winterizing your home is getting your sprinklers blown out.
Irrigation technician Jack Thompson said the reason you want to blow our your sprinklers is to prevent freeze damage. If you don’t get them blown out, Thompson said you may end up with “hundreds, thousands of dollars of unnecessary repairs.”
It’s best to get your sprinklers cleared by a licensed contractor no later than Thanksgiving . If you wait, Thompson warned, “The grounds really start freezing, and then the heads start freezing, and it’s hard to get the water out of the head at that point.”
Depending on the size of your house, getting your sprinklers blown out will cost you about $50 to $70. That price is minimal, compared to how much it will cost you to fix your frozen pipes and sprinkler system, if you don’t get the service done.
