5 Home Maintenance Jobs To Complete During the Winter

Canadian winters can be harsh, making it difficult, unpleasant, or sometimes impossible to carry out outdoor home maintenance tasks. However, there are many small jobs Ottawa handymen can help with, as well as large jobs, that you can have done inside the house. The cold weather may help you focus more attention on the interior of your home than you might be able to spare when the weather is warm.

1. Update Plumbing Fixtures

Updating plumbing fixtures is a fairly easy maintenance task that can quickly improve the look of your kitchen or bathroom. However, this is more than just an aesthetic update. New plumbing fixtures may be more functional than the old ones. Current plumbing fixtures are also designed to be more efficient than older ones, meaning that you could become more eco-friendly by not wasting water and also save some money on your utility bills. In this way, replacing plumbing fixtures can give you a good return on your initial investment.

2. Improve Interior Lighting

During the summer, natural light is available during more hours of the day, so you may not pay much attention to your interior lighting. With fall and winter, the number of daylight hours decreases, requiring you to rely on your interior lighting a lot more. Replacing outdated incandescent bulbs with more efficient LED bulbs is a small change that can make a big difference to your utility bills. You can also make a change to the brightness or colour temperature if you want to, but the nice thing about LEDs is that the technology has advanced to a point where the quality of light that they give off is similar to what you would get from traditional incandescents. However, LED bulbs last much longer, so this may be the last time that you ever have to change your lightbulbs.

As with updating plumbing fixtures, installing new lighting fixtures can both improve your home’s look and reduce utility bills through better energy efficiency.

3. Organize Your Possessions

When the weather is warm and you can spend more time outside, you may not think much about clutter around your home because your mind is occupied with other things. When you have to spend more time inside due to the cold, the clutter can be much more noticeable. Clutter has been shown to increase stress, but winter provides a good opportunity to declutter and find new storage solutions.

4. Replace Doors and Windows

This may be a project to start in the fall so that you have time to finish it before cold weather sets in. Contractors usually only replace one door or window at a time so that you do not see a huge spike in your heating bills. Replacing doors and windows helps to prevent drafts to make your home more energy efficient.

5. Replace Flooring

Replacing flooring is a great maintenance task to do during the winter. Because the work takes place mostly indoors, inclement weather has little or no bearing on it. If you intend to install new hardwood, low humidity during the winter also contributes to the success of the project.

Typically, flooring replacement is a job that can be completed in a single day. Nevertheless, it does require preparation beforehand in the form of measuring the space and clearing out all furniture from the room. While the floor is clear, you may also wish to take the opportunity to update your baseboards as well.

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