Preparing your home for bitterly cold weather

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) – “A little bit of preventative maintenance now can go a long way in preventing a headache and also saving you money.” 

Preventative maintenance coming in the form of preparing your home for bitterly cold weather, which Nick Chabarria with AAA and Randy Earnest with Obermanns Plumbing, Heating and Cooling said starts outside your home. 

“Now’s the time, ahead of that cold, you want to go ahead and disconnect those hoses,” Chabarria said.

“A lot of people will put the covers on their outside faucets, the little insulated Styrofoam covers,” Earnest said. “You can use those to help keep that from freezing up.” 

Inside your home, make sure pipes are insulated properly, especially those along exterior walls. Also, in case of extremely cold weather, let faucets drip and open sink doors to let warm air flow in and keep pipes from freezing. 

Earnest said keeping an eye on the weather forecast and staying ahead of the curve when it comes to preventative maintenance is crucial. 

“It’s one of those things, it’s kind of like out of sight, out of mind, you’re not thinking about it at the time until it happens, then that’s when you’re thinking about it, like when your furnace breaks in the winter, you know, well, my heat’s not working,” he said.

And as for insurance coverage, Chabarria shared this analogy when determining what and what is not covered under a homeowner’s insurance policy when it comes to weather. 

“Any water coming down from the sky, rain, snow, ice, that’s going to be covered,” he said. “Water coming up, flood waters, that’s typically not. That’s going to require additional flood insurance. It’s so important to make sure you check your policy so you know ahead of time, what’s covered, what’s not.”