Utah winters don't ease in. One week it's 70 degrees, the next there's a hard freeze, and anything you didn't get around to in the fall becomes a January emergency. A weekend of prevention now saves real money later. Here's the checklist we run through for homeowners across Salt Lake and Utah County.
Start with water, because it's the costliest failure. Disconnect and drain garden hoses, shut off and drain exterior hose bibs if you have interior shut-offs, and insulate any exposed pipes in garages, crawl spaces, or along exterior walls. A frozen pipe that bursts can flood a basement in hours.
Next, hunt for drafts. Check the weatherstripping around exterior doors and the caulking around windows. If you can see daylight under a door or feel cold air at a window edge, you're paying to heat the outdoors. Fresh caulk, new weatherstripping, and a door sweep are cheap fixes with an immediate payoff on your gas bill.
Then look up and around: clean gutters so melting snow drains away from the foundation instead of into it, check that downspouts discharge well away from the house, and replace your furnace filter so the system runs efficiently through its hardest-working months. If you have a swamp cooler, make sure it's properly winterized and covered.
Finally, test the safety basics: smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors (especially important once the furnace is running daily), and fire extinguishers. If your list is longer than your weekend, WHOC Services offers fall winterization visits that knock out the whole checklist in one trip. Call (801) 404-1046 to get on the schedule before the first freeze.