Weatherproofing Your Home

Perhaps the best possible time to ensure that your home is fully weatherproofed is during the summer months. However, that doesn't mean that you need to wait, so get to it now. Weatherproofing your home will not only help make things more comfortable for you year round, it will also help your wallet. By taking a few simple precautions, you can make sure that you are not accidentally loosing any heat or cooling. This will, in the long run, also help to ensure your energy costs are down. All you need to do is follow these simple suggestions.

Materials needed:

• Handsaw
• Wood chisel
• Caulking gun
• Utility knife
• Screwdriver
• Hammer
• Tape measure
• Plane
• Pry bar
• Tin snips
• Hair dryer
• Silicone caulk
• Expandable insulating foam
• Weather stripping
• Foam gaskets
• Plastic sheeting
• Wood filler

Process:

• Make sure all your caulking is good. Take a look at all your windows, your dryer vent, and any other vents or exhaust ports you may have along your house. Make sure that the caulking along these are still good, and doesn't need to be replaced. In the event that they do, make sure that you fill any cracks that there may be, or simply replace the caulking to prevent any drafts.
• Check all exterior spigots. Take a look at the water spigots that you may have outside. Often these little places are overlooked when insulating your home. Simply take some expandable insulating foam and spray it where the walls and the spigot meet to help ensure that there is a tight seal.
• Install window well covers. By simply installing a few window well covers around any basement windows, you can dramatically cut off the loss of heat, and reduce the amount of heat you use. When you install these, make sure that you caulk around the edges to help ensure that there is a tight seal.
• Seal your air conditioners. When you don't need your air conditioner, make sure that it is covered and sealed properly. Regardless of when you use your air conditioner, make sure that wherever it is attached to the house to ensure that there are no leaks.
• Install gaskets around electrical fixtures. Surprisingly, one of the most common locations for a leak is around electrical fixtures. These are often simply left open, with no protective coverings other than the hard plastic faces. Install some soft rubber gaskets over the fixtures to provide some tougher insulation.
• Seal along baseboards. Remove the base molding along the bottom of the walls, and check to see if there is any cracks where the floor and the walls meet. If there is, then apply some expandable insulation foam to prevent any drafts.
• Use interior plastic sheeting. During the colder months, apply some plastic sheeting to the interior of your windows to offer a little bit better protection against the cold. Often all you need to do is tape this plastic to the window frame and then warm it with a hair dryer. This will remove the wrinkles, and allow you to see through with little or no problem.