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For many of us, winter is a wonderful season that evokes memories of Christmas, drinking hot chocolate next to a crackling fire, and fun activities such as skiing, sledding, or making a snowman. Winter can also be a stressful time of year with travel required on snow-covered roads, increased heating bills, and the possibility of damage to your home caused by harsh weather conditions. As an insurance company, we want you to be aware that proper home maintenance can significantly minimize the potential for damage to your home this winter.

The two biggest winter threats to your home are ice dams and frozen pipes. Following is information from the Institute for Business and Home Safety (www.ibhs.org) about these two threats:

An ice dam is an accumulation of ice at the lower edge of a sloped roof, usually at the gutter. When the interior heat melts the snow on the roof, the water will run down and refreeze at the roof’s edge, where temperatures are much cooler. Eventually, the ice builds up and blocks water from draining off of the roof, forcing the water under the roof covering and into your attic or down the inside walls of your house.

To help reduce the risk of ice dams forming:

• Keep the attic well ventilated so snow doesn’t melt and refreeze on the roof’s edge.
• Make sure the attic floor is well insulated to minimize the amount of heat rising through the attic from within the house.
• Consider having the snow removed from your roof.

Frozen water in pipes can cause water pressure buildup between the ice blockage and the closed faucet. This can lead to pipes bursting at their weakest point. Pipes in attics, crawl spaces and outside walls are particularly vulnerable to freezing in extremely cold weather, where holes in your home’s outside walls for television, cable or telephone lines allow cold air to reach them.

To keep water in your pipes from freezing:

• Fit exposed pipes with insulation sleeves or wrapping to slow the heat transfer.
• Seal cracks and holes in outside walls and foundations near water pipes with caulking.
• Keep cabinet doors open during cold spells to allow warm air to circulate around pipes.
• Keep a slow trickle of water flowing through faucets connected to pipes that run through an unheated or unprotected space.

If you follow these suggestions you should be able to relax more and enjoy the fun aspects of winter. For those of you who are eternally disgusted with the frigid temperatures, don’t forget that spring is just around the corner!