Repair It Before Winter: Ten Household Jobs That Become Expensive If You Ignore Them
Repair It Before Winter: Ten Household Jobs That Become Expensive If You Ignore Them
A £5 Repair in September Can Become a £500 Problem in January
There is a peculiar thing about household maintenance: the jobs we most regret ignoring are often the ones that originally looked too small to bother with.
A tap drips.
A gutter occasionally spills over.
A door lets in a thin line of cold air.
A little paint begins peeling from a wooden window frame.
A thermostat behaves strangely, but only sometimes.
None of these feels particularly urgent on a pleasant September afternoon.
Then winter arrives.
Rain finds its way behind the paint. Frost gets into cracks. The heating begins running every day. Gutters are overwhelmed by autumn leaves. Damp spreads. Pipes become vulnerable. A loose roof tile meets a December storm.
Suddenly the five-minute repair has turned into something involving ladders, plumbers, builders and considerably more money.
That is why early autumn is one of the best times of year to walk around the house and ask a very simple question:
What is slightly wrong now that could become seriously wrong by January?
Going green is not only about installing solar panels, buying efficient appliances or changing energy suppliers.
Sometimes it is simply about looking after what we already own.
Here are ten jobs worth checking before winter.
1. Stop That Dripping Tap
A dripping tap can seem almost insignificant.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
But it is wasting water continuously.
If it is a hot-water tap, there may also be an energy cost because some of that water has been heated.
The solution may be surprisingly small:
replacing a washer;
replacing a ceramic cartridge;
tightening a fitting;
replacing a damaged seal.
Parts can sometimes cost only a few pounds.
The important thing is not necessarily the amount of water lost from one individual drip. It is the mentality of allowing something to waste a resource 24 hours a day simply because the waste occurs slowly.
Put a bowl beneath a dripping tap for an hour and see how much water collects.
It can make the problem suddenly feel much more real.
2. Investigate Dripping Overflow Pipes
Walk around the outside of the house and look for small pipes emerging through walls.
Is one dripping?
A dripping overflow can indicate problems with:
toilet cisterns;
cold-water storage tanks;
header tanks;
ball valves;
float valves.
Again, the water loss may initially seem modest.
But unlike running a bath or watering the garden, this is water being wasted without anybody receiving any benefit from it whatsoever.
There is another reason to investigate.
Water constantly running down an outside wall can contribute to staining, algae and deterioration of the surrounding materials.
Find the cause rather than simply accepting the drip.
3. Clean the Gutters Before the Heavy Rain Arrives
Blocked gutters are one of the classic examples of a small maintenance job creating a much larger problem.
Leaves, moss and debris accumulate.
Then heavy rain arrives.
Instead of travelling safely along the gutter and down the drain, water begins overflowing.
It may run:
down brickwork;
behind fascia boards;
onto timber;
towards windows;
against foundations.
Water is extraordinarily good at finding weaknesses in buildings.
A few handfuls of leaves can eventually contribute to problems costing hundreds or even thousands of pounds.
Autumn makes this particularly important because trees are about to deposit another enormous quantity of leaves.
Check:
gutters;
downpipes;
hopper heads;
gullies;
drain covers.
If accessing them requires unsafe ladder work, employ somebody equipped to do it properly.
Saving money does not mean taking unnecessary risks.
4. Find the Draughts Before You Turn Up the Heating
Stand beside your external doors and windows on a windy day.
Can you feel cold air?
A small draught might be solved with inexpensive:
weather stripping;
brush seals;
compression seals;
door sweeps;
letterbox seals.
This is one of those repairs that produces an immediate improvement.
A house does not need to be completely airtight, because controlled ventilation remains important.
But there is a big difference between intentional ventilation and cold air leaking through a damaged door seal.
If you are heating the room while outside air is continuously entering through unnecessary gaps, you are paying to replace heat that should never have escaped so easily.
5. Look Up at the Roof
You do not necessarily have to climb onto the roof.
In fact, unless you know what you are doing, you probably shouldn't.
Instead, stand safely outside and look.
Are any tiles:
slipped;
cracked;
missing;
obviously displaced?
Look around ridge tiles, flashing and roof edges.
Then inspect the loft if you can do so safely.
Look for:
daylight where it shouldn't appear;
signs of water staining;
damp timber;
deteriorating roof felt.
A slightly displaced tile during dry weather may appear harmless.
During several hours of wind-driven winter rain it can become something entirely different.
This is exactly the sort of defect where early intervention can be dramatically cheaper than repairing water damage later.
6. Check the Thermostat Before You Depend Upon It
There is little point having an efficient heating system if the controls are not working correctly.
Before winter, check that:
the thermostat responds properly;
programmes are still correct;
thermostatic radiator valves move freely;
smart controls are connected;
batteries in wireless thermostats are healthy;
temperatures displayed appear sensible.
If you have changed routines since last winter, check the schedule.
There is no reason to heat an empty house simply because the heating programme still reflects how you lived two years ago.
This applies whether your home uses:
a gas boiler;
oil heating;
electric heating;
district heating;
a heat pump.
Good control is part of efficient heating.
7. Repair Exterior Woodwork Before Water Gets Behind It
Peeling paint on an outside window frame can look like a cosmetic problem.
It may actually be the beginning of a structural one.
Paint is not merely decoration.
On timber, it also provides protection from weather.
Once the protective coating fails, water can penetrate the wood.
Then repeated cycles of:
wetting -> cold weather -> drying -> wetting again
can accelerate deterioration.
Check:
window frames;
doors;
sheds;
gates;
fascia boards;
exposed timber.
Small areas may simply need preparation, treatment and repainting.
Leave them for several winters and you may eventually be replacing timber instead.
8. Protect Vulnerable Pipes
A pipe does not have to burst very dramatically to cause expensive damage.
Water can travel through ceilings, insulation, plasterboard and electrical fittings before anybody notices the full extent of the problem.
Check pipes in:
garages;
lofts;
utility areas;
outbuildings;
external walls;
other particularly cold locations.
Look for missing or damaged pipe insulation.
Also check outside taps.
An inexpensive length of suitable pipe insulation is considerably cheaper than dealing with burst-pipe damage.
If you have pipes in an area that became particularly cold last winter, that is the obvious place to start.
9. Repair Failed Seals Around Baths, Showers and Sinks
This one isn't obviously a winter problem, but winter can make it more troublesome.
We spend more time indoors, bathrooms remain humid for longer, and houses experience greater differences between indoor and outdoor temperatures.
Check the silicone seals around:
baths;
shower trays;
sinks;
worktops.
Look for:
cracks;
gaps;
mould;
areas pulling away from the surface.
A tiny failed seal can allow water into places that were never designed to get wet.
That can damage:
plasterboard;
flooring;
timber;
cupboards;
ceilings below.
Replacing a failed bead of sealant is boring.
Replacing rotten flooring is rather more exciting than most householders would prefer.
10. Clear Drains and Gullies Before Autumn Does It for You
Finally, look down.
Outside drains and gullies quietly collect:
leaves;
soil;
moss;
stones;
twigs;
garden debris.
During a summer shower they may cope perfectly well.
During prolonged winter rain they may not.
Water can then begin pooling beside the house or flowing somewhere it was never intended to go.
Clear accessible debris and make sure water appears to drain properly.
If a drain repeatedly backs up, the problem may be further down the system and worth investigating before the wettest part of the year.
The Twenty-Minute Autumn Inspection
You don't necessarily need to spend an entire weekend doing this.
Start with a twenty-minute walk around your home.
Take your phone with you.
Photograph anything that needs attention.
Look for:
water where it shouldn't be;
gaps where there shouldn't be gaps;
loose things that should be fixed;
blocked things that should be clear;
peeling surfaces that should be protected;
controls that should be controlling.
Then divide your list into three categories:
Do now
Small inexpensive jobs you can safely tackle yourself.
Arrange soon
Jobs requiring a plumber, roofer, electrician or other tradesperson.
Keep watching
Things that are not yet serious but should be checked again.
That simple exercise could save considerably more money than it costs.
Repair Is One of the Most Overlooked Green Habits
We often associate environmental responsibility with buying something new.
A new efficient appliance.
A new heating system.
A new electric car.
A new smart thermostat.
Yet there is another form of environmentalism that receives far less attention:
maintaining things properly so they last longer.
Repairing a wooden window frame rather than replacing it.
Fixing a tap rather than allowing water to run away.
Replacing a door seal rather than compensating by turning up the heating.
Cleaning a gutter rather than repairing the damp wall it eventually creates.
The environmental benefit comes partly from reducing wasted energy and water.
But it also comes from avoiding unnecessary replacement, materials, manufacturing, transport and disposal.
The Cheapest Emergency Is the One That Never Happens
I have increasingly come to think that good household maintenance is less about being enthusiastic about DIY and more about noticing things early.
Most serious household problems don't begin as serious household problems.
They begin as something small.
A stain.
A drip.
A draught.
A crack.
A loose fitting.
A strange noise.
A little patch of peeling paint.
The mistake is assuming that because something is small today, it will remain small.
Winter has an unfortunate habit of testing every weakness in a building.
So before the heating goes on permanently and the wet, windy weather arrives, spend half an hour looking around your home.
You might find nothing.
That would be excellent.
But if you discover one £5 problem in September and prevent it becoming a £500 problem in January, it may be one of the best investments you make all year.
Repair it before winter.
Because one of the greenest — and cheapest — things we can do is stop small problems becoming big ones.
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