Winter hits a house from multiple angles at once. Frozen pipes in the basement. Warm air leaking out of every window gap. Gutters clogged with October leaves turning into November ice dams. The time to deal with all of it isn't the week before the first freeze — it's a mild Saturday in early fall, when you can still work outside without gloves.
I start my winter prep the weekend after the clocks fall back. It's a ritual now. Coffee, a notepad, and a couple of hours of checking things off before the weather turns. Here's the list.
Windows and doors that leak air in summer leak even more in winter, and the temperature difference makes the leaks obvious. Use a flashlight held at a low angle against trim and under sills — the beam will flicker or bend where cold air is pushing through. A stick of incense works even better: hold it near the edges and watch the smoke trail. If it wavers or blows sideways, you found a leak.
For gaps up to 1/8 inch wide, apply weatherstripping with the adhesive backing pressed firmly into place. For cracks wider than that, use a caulking gun with paintable silicone or acrylic latex caulk. Exterior doors with gaps at the bottom get a door sweep or a draft stopper. This is the most tedious hour of winter prep, and the one that pays off on every heating bill all winter. For windows that still feel drafty after a basic weatherstripping pass, our rundown of drafty window fixes goes from the cheapest temporary cures to the permanent ones.
I once found a gap under a kitchen window so wide I could see daylight. The previous owners had stuffed a paper towel in it. Paper towels are not insulation. Caulk is insulation.
Pipes in unheated basements, crawl spaces, garages, and along exterior walls freeze before you realize they're cold. Foam pipe wrap is the fix — it's split down one side, slides over the pipe, and seals with a peel-off adhesive strip. A few dollars covers every exposed pipe in a typical house.
Before wrapping, tighten any loose pipe straps with a screwdriver. A pipe that can rattle is a pipe that can crack when it freezes and expands. Pay extra attention to pipes near foundation vents, sill plates, and anywhere you can feel cold air with your hand. If you wouldn't sleep outside in January, don't leave your pipes exposed either. Wrapping is the first line of defense; our full guide on how to prevent frozen pipes covers the rest, including deep-freeze prep.
Don't wait for the first 40-degree night to find out the furnace is dead. On a mild day, turn the thermostat to heat mode and let it run for 15 minutes. Walk through the house and check every supply vent for airflow. Listen for grinding, banging, or a high-pitched squeal that wasn't there last year.
Weak airflow in one room usually means a closed damper or a disconnected duct, not a system failure. But if several vents are weak, or the system is making new sounds, write down what you hear and feel. Schedule an HVAC technician before peak season hits — the first cold snap books every HVAC company solid for two weeks. Early fall is the sweet spot; you can still get same-week service.
Change the furnace filter while you're at it. A dirty filter restricts airflow and makes the system work harder. I change mine on the same day as this checklist so there's no separate date to remember.
Water that can't drain through clogged gutters backs up at the roof edge and freezes there. That's an ice dam. Ice dams force water under shingles and into the attic, and the damage costs thousands.
Set your ladder on dry, level ground and have someone hold the base. Clean out leaves and debris by hand or with a plastic gutter scoop — metal tools gouge the gutter material. Once clear, check that downspout extensions carry water at least 3 feet away from the foundation, and replace any that are missing or crushed. Foundation damage comes from standing meltwater with nowhere to go.
If your roof is steep, your gutters are high, or you just don't want to be on a ladder, hire this out. Gutter cleaning costs $100 to $200. A fall from a ladder costs a lot more. Before you climb, run through our ladder safety checklist — footing, angle, and three points of contact are what keep this job boring.
Heating season means furnaces, fireplaces, and space heaters are running, and carbon monoxide risk goes up with them. It's also the season when indoor radon levels run highest, with the house closed up for months — if you've never tested, find out whether your home needs a radon test while you're already in testing mode. Press and hold the test button on every smoke detector and CO detector in the house. Replace batteries immediately if the alarm is faint or silent. Then check the manufacture date on the back of each unit — smoke detectors expire after 10 years, CO detectors after 5 to 7 years. Past that date, the sensor may not work even with fresh batteries.
If a unit is expired, replace it rather than re-batterying it; here's how to replace a smoke detector, hardwired or battery. Record the test date and which units got new batteries, too. Six months from now you won't remember, and the notes will.
Most ceiling fans have a small switch on the motor housing. Stand under the fan, switch it to clockwise, and turn it on low. You should feel no breeze at all — just a gentle redistribution of air. If you feel a draft, the speed is too high. The switch takes 30 seconds per room and makes a noticeable difference in rooms with high ceilings, where warm air pools out of reach all winter.
| Season | Direction | Speed | What It Does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer | Counterclockwise | Your usual setting | Pushes air straight down, creating a cooling breeze |
| Winter | Clockwise | Low | Pulls cool air up and pushes warm air trapped at the ceiling back down into the room — no draft |
Our ceiling fan direction guide digs into why the winter setting works, if you want the full physics.
Locate the interior shut-off valve for each outdoor spigot — usually in the basement or crawl space, directly behind the faucet — and turn it off. Then go outside, open the spigot fully, and let the remaining water drain out. Leave the spigot open all winter. Disconnect every hose, drain them, and store them indoors.
I forgot to drain one spigot in my first house. The pipe froze, cracked inside the wall, and on the first warm day in March, water poured through the garage ceiling. The repair cost more than every other task on this list combined. I set a phone reminder every October now: "Drain the spigots." It's the cheapest insurance you'll ever set an alarm for.
Waiting for the first freeze. Every job here is pleasant in October and miserable in December — and a dead furnace found late means a two-week queue with everyone else who waited.
Leaving the hose connected "just for now." That's exactly how the pipe in my first house cracked. Disconnecting takes one minute, in October, on purpose.
Skipping the furnace filter. A clogged filter strangles airflow, and weak airflow gets misread as a dying furnace. Change it during the test run.
Trusting expired detectors with fresh batteries. A 12-year-old smoke detector with new batteries is still a 12-year-old sensor. Check the date on the back, not just the beep.
Early fall, on a mild day, weeks before the first freeze — the weekend after the clocks fall back is a good anchor. You want working weather, and HVAC companies that can still book you the same week if the test run finds a problem.
About a couple of hours for the full list: seven jobs, most under 20 minutes each. The draft hunt is the slow part. Gutter cleaning is the one task many people hire out, at $100 to $200.
Clockwise, on low. That pulls cool air up toward the ceiling and pushes the warm air pooled up there back down into the room. If you feel a breeze, the speed is too high — the winter setting should be draft-free.
Yes. Disconnecting the hose isn't enough on a standard spigot — close the interior shut-off valve, open the outside faucet, and let the line drain. Water left sitting in the fixture can still freeze and split the pipe inside the wall.
Smoke detectors expire after 10 years and CO detectors after 5 to 7 years, whether or not the test button still beeps. Check the manufacture date stamped on the back of each unit every fall, and replace anything past its date.