As the leaves turn vibrant shades of red and gold and a chill starts to fill the air, it’s a clear sign that winter is approaching. Ensuring that your home is prepared for the harsh winter months is essential for both its appearance and functionality. One often overlooked aspect of winter preparation is your home’s siding. Here, we’ll explore some essential steps to ensure your home’s siding is ready for the challenges that winter brings.

Inspecting Your Siding

Throughout the year, your siding undergoes all kinds of damage and hardships, so you should always inspect your siding before the harsher weather arrives. During the inspection of your siding, you should keep an eye out for dirty, damaged, or unsealed siding. These conditions pose the most danger to your home and siding because they all promote moisture build-up and inefficient insulation. The winter months bring snow and heavy winds that can exert a large amount of strain on your siding.

If your siding is already damaged then your home will eventually succumb to the elements of the environment. To clean dirty siding, use a soap and water solution with a brush or hose. If your siding is cracked, loosened, or has holes, make sure to promptly make the necessary repairs. Lastly, if your siding seems drafty and you observe unsealed gaps, be sure to seal the areas with caulking to resolve the issue.

Checking Your Gutters

When it comes to siding, gutters are vastly overlooked during the process of winter-proofing your home. Examining your gutters for unwanted build-up or repair can help save thousands of dollars in the long run. Once gutters are clogged they begin pouring large amounts of water down the siding of your home. The pouring water on top of the freezing condition can cause the siding to crack, bubble, or allow water to seep through cracks and enter your home. Avoiding this situation altogether in the winter by checking the condition of your gutters prior to winter is the most ideal solution.

Maintaining or Upgrading Your Siding

With the winter months being full of snow and ice it’s important to maintain the overall health of your siding. Make sure your siding is securely attached to your home so that the weight of snow and ice will not affect the siding. However, if your siding seems to be in poor condition and you’ve had it for a long time then you should consider an upgrade or even a makeover. Sometimes your siding has been around so long that there is no way to maintain it but rather replace it.

If you live in the Randolph, NJ area and are looking to make an upgrade to your home then look no further. For information about K&B Home Remodelers, please feel free to reach out. We can be contacted over the phone at (862) 305-0462 or through our online contact form.