Home Maintenance Tips for Winter

Protect Your Home — and Your Investment!

Your house is more than the place where you live, it's your home and your most important investment. Carrying out a regular program of maintenance and repairs can help you protect that investment, and help keep your family safe and sound in every season.

Being that we are having a relatively mild winter here in Toronto, and if you have not already done so, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation suggests you take a few minutes each week to perform the following simple tasks, which will help you to avoid the most common — and costly — problems before they occur. Some of these tasks include:

• Check and clean or replace your furnace filters on a monthly basis during the heating season.
• Have your furnace or heating system serviced by a qualified service company (every two years for a gas furnace and every year for an oil furnace).
• Bleed air from the hot water radiators, and turn the gas furnace pilot light on.
• Vacuum electric baseboard heaters to remove dust, remove the grilles on forced-air heating systems and vacuum inside the ducts.
• If you have a heat recovery ventilator (HRV), clean the outside air intake grill, the filters inside the unit, and the core, and pour water down the condensate drain to test it.
• Replace window screens with storm windows, and ensure all windows, doors and skylights shut tightly, including the door between your house and garage.
• Ensure that the ground around your home slopes away from the foundation wall to prevent water from draining into the basement.
• Clean leaves from eavestroughs and downspouts to ensure proper drainage from the roof, and check chimneys for nests or other obstructions.
• Cover the outside of air conditioners, and drain and store outdoor hoses. Close the valve to the outdoor hose connection, and drain the faucet (unless it is frost proof).
• Winterize landscaping by storing outdoor furniture, preparing gardens and, if necessary, protecting young trees or bushes for winter.

For more information or a free copy of the “About Your House” fact sheet Home Maintenance Schedule or for information on any other aspect of owning, maintaining or buying a home, visit our Web site at www.cmhc.ca or call CMHC at 1-800-668-2642. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is Canada’s national housing agency and a source of objective, reliable housing expertise.