Winter is fast approaching. Make sure you’re well-prepared.

Arbella knows that New England winter weather is rough. But we also know that it can get even worse if you don’t have the right protection and information. Stay safe this winter with these helpful tips on safe home heating and ice dam prevention.

Avoiding the Hazards of Alternative Heating

More than one-third of Americans use fireplaces, wood/pellet stoves, and other fuel-burning devices to heat their homes. Portable space heaters, fireplaces, and chimneys cause thousands of home fires and hundreds of deaths each year. Arbella offers these tips to help you stay safe while you keep warm this winter.

The Golden Rules of Safe Home Heating:

• Maintain carbon monoxide and smoke detectors on all levels of your home.
• Never use your gas oven to generate home heat.
• Have your furnace serviced regularly to ensure safety and efficiency.

Stop Ice Dams Before They Start

When ice builds up at the lower edge of a sloped roof, usually at drains and gutters, it can create a dam-like effect that forces water back under the roof, into your attic, or down the inside walls of your home. To prevent the problem:

• Keep your attic well ventilated and your attic floor well insulated to minimize home heat rising through the attic. A colder attic means less melting and refreezing on the roof.
• Install a water-repellent membrane under your roof covering when you re-roof.
• Replace recessed light fixtures near the roof with alternatives. Heat generated from recessed lighting near the roof melts snow and contributes to ice build-up.

Ask your local building official about minimum code requirements for ice dam protection.

Preventing Burst Pipes

When water freezes in a pipe, pressure can build between the ice blockage and the closed faucet at the pipe’s end, causing a pipe to burst at its weakest points. Most vulnerable to freezing are pipes in attics, crawl spaces, outside walls, and near holes in outside walls where television, cable, and other lines let in cold air. To help keep pipes from freezing in cold weather:

• Apply insulation sleeves or wrapping on exposed pipes.
• Use caulking to seal cracks and holes in walls and foundations near water pipes.
• Keep cabinet doors open to keep warm air circulating around pipes.
• Shut off exterior faucets from inside your home and leave exterior faucets open outside.
• Drain water systems, especially when a home will be unattended.