How to winterize your home before the first hard freeze

You could spend a whole weekend on this, or you can do the handful of jobs that prevent the expensive problems. A frozen pipe can split and flood a house. So water comes first, and everything else follows in order of how much trouble it saves you.

If you live somewhere it rarely freezes, skip the first section and start with heat.

Protect the pipes first

These are the jobs to get done before the first hard freeze. Most take less than half an hour.

• Disconnect and drain garden hoses. Water trapped in a connected hose can back up into the faucet. Store hoses inside if you can.
• Shut off the outside faucets. Many homes have an inside valve for each one, often in the basement or a utility area. Close it, then open the outside faucet so the line can drain.
• Insulate exposed pipes. Foam pipe sleeves are inexpensive and go on in minutes. Focus on basements, crawl spaces, attics and garages.
• Drain the sprinkler lines. The Red Cross lists sprinkler supply lines among the things to drain. Follow the system's directions, or hire it out.
• Find your main water shutoff. It's usually where the water line enters the house. Make sure the valve turns and show everyone at home where it is. If a pipe does burst, this is the only thing that matters for the next five minutes.

Get the heat checked

• Book a furnace tune-up. NFPA recommends having heating equipment and chimneys cleaned and inspected every year by a qualified professional. Technicians get busy once it turns cold, so earlier is easier.
• Change the filter. It takes five minutes, and heating season is when it matters most.
• Clear around the furnace. NFPA says to keep anything that can burn at least three feet from heating equipment. Furnace closets have a way of filling up with boxes.
• Have the chimney checked before the first fire. Same yearly inspection, same reason.

Test your alarms

Heating season is when carbon monoxide risks go up, and you'll have the windows closed.

• Test every smoke and carbon monoxide alarm. NFPA recommends testing at least once a month.
• Replace the batteries when the clocks change, unless your alarms have sealed 10-year batteries. CPSC suggests this as an easy reminder.
• Check the date on the back of each smoke alarm. NFPA says to replace them 10 years after the date they were made.

Take care of the outside

• Clean the gutters after most of the leaves have come down. Check that downspouts carry water away from the foundation.
• Look over the roof from the ground for missing or lifted shingles. Binoculars work, and you stay off the ladder.
• Trim branches that hang over the roof or rub against it, and call a pro for anything near power lines.
• Bring in or cover the things that don't like freezing, including ceramic pots and anything holding water.

Seal the drafts

These aren't emergencies, but you'll feel the difference, and so will your heating bill.

• Check weatherstripping around doors and windows. Close a door on a sheet of paper. If it slides out easily, the seal needs work.
• Caulk gaps around window frames and where pipes and wires come through walls.
• Weatherstrip the attic hatch. It's a common leak that's easy to forget.
• Set ceiling fans to spin clockwise on low, which pushes warm air back down from the ceiling.

Going away this winter?

The Red Cross says to leave the heat on, set no lower than 55°F. A few more precautions are worth taking:

• Ask someone to check on the house, and tell them where the main water shutoff is.
• If it's going to be very cold, open the cabinet doors under sinks so warm air can reach the pipes.
• If you'll be gone a long time, ask a plumber about shutting off and draining the water.

If a pipe freezes anyway

You'll usually notice when a faucet gives you only a trickle. Here's what the Red Cross recommends:

1. Keep the faucet open. As the ice melts, moving water helps melt the rest.
2. Apply gentle heat to that section of pipe: an electric heating pad, a hair dryer, a space heater kept away from anything flammable, or towels soaked in hot water.
3. Never use an open flame. That means no blowtorch, and no kerosene or propane heater.
4. Keep going until full pressure returns, then check your other faucets. If one pipe froze, others might have too.
5. Call a licensed plumber if you can't find the frozen spot, can't reach it, or can't thaw it.

If a pipe has burst, shut off the main water valve first, and stay away from standing water near anything electrical.