MAKE YOUR HOME WELCOMING THIS WINTER

ONE of winter’s biggest headaches is the toll it can take on your house if you’re not prepared. Loose tiles can fall, pipes can burst and boilers can break down, meaning freezing-cold misery for everyone indoors. And finding someone to repair them can be difficult, not to mention costly.

So, minimise the chance of disaster striking by taking these easy steps now – you won’t regret it when the first cold snap strikes.

• First, go up into your loft with a torch. Before you turn it on, look for any light streaming in – it’s a sign a tile is missing or loose, so get it fixed.

• Make sure any pipes or water tank up there – or in any other colder part of the house, such as a utility room or garage – are well insulated, to avoid the chance of bursting or leaking.

• Now, with the torch, look for darker patches in the woodwork, staining or a white, powdery residue – these are all signs rainwater is getting in. Find out how, and fix the problem.

• Once that’s done, go downstairs and make sure your boiler is in good working order, preferably by getting it serviced. If you can’t, turn the heating on now to check it’s working well – getting a good engineer is almost impossible the first time it really turns cold, because so many boilers break down.

• Check your doors and windows are wind and rain proof by filling in any cracks and by giving wooden windowsills a coat of protective paint, so they won’t rot when wet.

• If your windows are draughty and you can’t afford to replace them, cover them in double-glazing film and use adhesive weather stripping to fill in any gaps. Both are available at good hardware stores.

• Now go outside and make sure all external fittings such as lights, alarms and hanging plants are securely fastened, so they don’t come free in a storm.

• Check the roof from the outside for loose or broken tiles and the chimney for any cracks and loose render and get them fixed – they’ll only get worse over winter.

• Then clear the gutters. If they get full of leaf mulch, water will collect in them and start leaking into the roof.

• Finally, if you’ve got an open fire, order plenty of logs or coal now – there’ll be a run on supplies once the weather really bites.