Since winter is coming your way, there are a few months you can make use of the time to make your home work better. You will need to make some preparations to make this work, so look forward to the coming tips in this article. Ways to cut your energy consumption, as well as making it possible to keep it looking good and making it practical are all challenges you need to tackle. The tips ahead will provide you with ideas you can use to make things work, especially if you ended up buying the house recently and you can use the chance to do some upgrades and subsequent cleaning:
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Sealing the walls
One way you can make this work in terms of keeping insulation is to ensure you work on this long before winter arrives. The last thing you want to deal with is the issue of poorly insulated areas around the house that would lead to higher costs of heating and electric bills in general. The weak points and areas where the insulation eroded and failed over the course of time will need to be addressed and repaired. You can make use of an infrared thermometer to spot weakened areas and to deal with them accordingly. This useful tool will also allow you to spot areas all over the house when you need to fix them.
Some areas may be hard to reach, requiring you to do a good bit of work and renovation, but you can do so with professional help. You can also make use of a company that works with removal of junk as well when the project is complete.
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Dealing with the windows
This is one thing you will need to deal with no matter where you live or how long it has been since the home has seen maintenance. If you have any windows that are poorly insulated, you would do well to address the issue, no matter what season it is right now. Double or even better, triple insulation with glazing would be an excellent way of keeping your home warm during the winter days, as well as cool in the heat of summer. This is one great way you can save money in the long run, as it will really help drive down costs for heating and more.
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Dealing with gaps in the insulation
Whenever you need to have something pass through your walls, such as piping, tubes, cables and more, then you will need to deal with weakened insulation as the spot will lose its structural integrity. You will need to fix whatever is wrong as soon as you can. You can do this with expanding foam in most cases, blocking off the hole and making a tight fit, but you should never use it close to a gas source since the foam happens to be flammable. The same goes with cables that are improperly insulated. You should also remember that the foam is a real bother to clean, so you would do well to use it carefully.
The worst thing you can do is deal with upholstery cleaning or carpet cleaning with the wrong materials used for insulation, so be careful and hire a cleaning company if you can’t handle the task by yourself.