What should you do to get your home ready for a Manitoba winter?

Stephen: Stephen Olyniuk , and I work with the Remax Performance Realty and I have Dan Engbrecht from House Review.  Dan is a Home Inspector and he's going to give us a few tips today, on what you should do to get your house ready for winter.  What's the first thing you would recommend her Dan?

 

Dan: Basically Stephen, disconnect this sub discharge pipe right here at the house.  It’s going to freeze, it's possible to freeze in over winter.  And next time the pipe runs, it’s going to not move the water and burn out.  In spring, you just put it back on.  That simple.

 

Stephen: So, you just take it off, unscrew it, leave it off and put it back on in the spring.

 

Dan: Yep, exactly.

 

Stephen: Let's move on to the next item.  So, Dan, what's the next thing on our list?

 

Dan: This thing right here is an exterior water tap.  It's frost free, which means that the valve is set back in the house.  Every time you put it off, it's going to dribble a bit because it's draining that fluid out of the pipe.  Which obviously isn't going to freeze because the valves inside the warm part of the house.  

 

Maybe in winter, you got to make sure that the garden hose is off.  Just so that it doesn't freeze.  Drain the hose whatever, put it away.  The other thing is in an older home, they may not have this frost-free tap.  So that one, you want to turn off at the inside, open it here, let it drain.  It might get water bulb at the top inside and then just open and let all the water out.

 

And leave it closed inside and leave this on as the length of that hose is empty.  

 

Stephen: We'll move on to the next item.

 

Dan: Alright.

 

Stephen: Then you said we going to take care of 2 items on the list, here right?  

 

Dan: Yes, we are, Steve. 

 

Stephen: Alright.

 

Dan: We got the down-fold extension it downs itself and keeps the gutters clean.  So basically, you want to clean them, spring and fall.  In this area here, where there's not many trees, once a year is probably good enough.  High tree density, clean it twice a year.  Otherwise, you got this tension.  This one has already been retracted for winter.  In spring, you basically put it back down.

 

Stephen: Okay.

 

Dan: So, as you get the melt, it directs the water well away from the house.  You got to keep the water away from the house, all cases.  Keep your gutters clean, keep your extensions, extended.

 

Stephen: Awesome.  This is Dan Engbrecht from House Review and if you ever needing a home inspection done, fantastic guy to do it.  Walks people through the process and does a great job with it.  Gives them all the details that they need.  And if you have any questions at all, don't hesitate, drop us a comment below.  Thanks for watching and have a great day!

 

Dan: Thank you Stephen.