Fall Tips to Get Your Home Ready for Winter
With autumn in full swing, take advantage of the crisp days and sunshine to prepare your home for winter. Whether you do it yourself or hire a professional, complete these tasks and you won’t spend a fortune on home repairs this winter.
Clean your gutters.
It’s a hassle, but you should clean your gutters before the temperature drops to help prevent ice dams, which form when melted snow pools and refreezes at roof edges and eaves. This ridge of ice then prevents water caused by melting snow from draining from the roof. Since it has nowhere to go, the water can leak into your home and damage walls, ceilings, and insulation. Water damage will soon be followed by mold. No matter what the season, gutters filled with heavy leaves can pull away from your house and cause leaks that damage your home and lead to mold growth. Also be sure your downspouts are angled away from your home to prevent leaks in the basement.
Check your roof for leaks.
You certainly don’t want to start your winter with a leaky roof. Check your ceilings for water spots, mold, or stains. If you spot them, before you call in a roofer, have a mold inspector test your home for mold. That way you’ll know exactly what needs to be replaced so the mold doesn’t come back. You may have small stains or dark spots now, but once the heavy snow sets in, the problem could get much worse, and you could wind up with a full blown mold infestation. You should also check your attic for moisture, as mold can easily grow there if it is not properly ventilated.
Clean your HVAC units, fireplace, furnace, and wood-burning stove.
Indoor air quality suffers in the winter because your home is closed up most of the time. Toxic fumes, including carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), can be emitted from fireplace and wood burning stove smoke and may back up into the house, which can cause serious health issues. Mold and dust can also build up in HVAC units over the summer months, then spread throughout your home when the heat is turned on. To make sure your indoor air quality is at an acceptable level, schedule a test from an environmental inspector like RTK Environmental Group. They will test for VOCs, mold, particulate matter, and other chemicals. For additional tips on indoor air quality, visit the Environmental Protection Agency’s Web site.
behind walls and under floor boards or carpets – wherever the water finds a path to travel. Mold can grow from even a very small leak, which can have detrimental consequences to your home, and ultimately, to your health. If you think the ice dams on the eaves of your house or gutters are causing indoor leaks, the safest thing to do is hire a certified microbial investigator, who can use a moisture meter to check for wet and damp areas behind walls, as well as take air samples to see if there is a mold problem. If you decide to wait, be diligent about checking attics, basements, and other less trafficked areas in your home for musty odors or visible mold, which are telltale signs of hidden mold. If there’s mold, you should have your home tested for other infestation (often unseen) by an independent mold inspector – one that does only testing, and not remediation, as this would be a conflict of interest.
moisture from passing from the living areas into and through the insulation. If air from your home finds its way to the underside of the roof sheathing, the heated air raises the temperature of the roof, causing snow to melt, then refreeze when the temperature drops again. Important: make sure you have enough insulation. An insufficiently insulated home is more likely to suffer damage caused by ice dams. To find out how much insulation your home should have (based on location and age), refer to this chart on the 
products that will prevent water from working its way into the home. (A snow and ice shield consists of a membrane that seals the roof under the shingles, forming a continuous barrier to water.)
Pretty icicles hanging from the gutter? Danger ahead! Icicles hanging from gutters and eaves are the first signs of ice dams. Ice dams can cause leaks, and those can lead to structural damage and mold infestation.
In addition to roof and water damage, ice dams can cause mold and mildew to form in attics, ceilings, insulation, and on wall surfaces, he explains. “The leak itself is certainly a headache, but it’s the mold that follows after the leak that will cause the most damage to your home, and possibly your health,” he warns.
ceilings and pour into the house during a big storm. Buckets and towels became our best friend.
To add to our headaches, we had a leak somewhere in the chimney that plagued us for years. Nobody could seem to solve this problem, so water would come in through the chimney flashing and soak the living room wall as well.
The contractors fixed the ugly parts, not realizing that there was mold in places they could not see. Thousand and thousands of dollars later, mold suddenly started reappearing on our new walls and ceilings. Our breathing and allergy problems continued. We decided to get a mold inspection this time, and were able to pinpoint where the problems were. We had to shell out a ton of money yet again for a contractor to come back and do the work properly.
Depending on how and where your ice dams form, the water can go anywhere. We just had a call from a family in Connecticut that discovered water pouring into the basement. The cause turned out to be one ice dam that grew so large, that water traveled to the deck, pooled, then leaked into the basement. If ice dams travel down your downspouts, water may be pooling near your foundation with nowhere to escape.
Many people make the mistake of cosmetically repairing water damage without checking to see if water leaks have caused mold to grow. 
from working its way into the home. A snow and ice shield consists of a membrane that seals the roof, forming a continuous barrier to water.
snow. When the temperature drops at night, the water refreezes to form ice dams, which prevent melting snow from draining off the roof. Since the water has nowhere to go, it can leak into your home or office, causing damage to walls, ceilings, insulation, and floors. Once that happens, mold is sure to follow. A new mold colony can be established in less than 24 hours. When inhaled, mold spores can cause chronic allergies, headaches, fatigue, skin rashes, throat and eye irritations, wheezing, and many respiratory problems including asthma – especially in children. The bottom line: ice dams can cause structural damage as well as health issues.
Damage from ice dams – outdoors and indoors, doesn’t occur all at once. Outside, ice dams can rip off gutters and downspouts, loosen shingles, and damage roofs. Inside, the damage can be much worse. Water leaking into your home can destroy walls, ceilings, wallboard, floors, insulation, and more. Once wet, insulation will lose its ability to insulate well, and you will lose heat. Luckily, that damage usually can be seen easily. What you may not be able to see is mold infestation behind your walls.
respond before you take action. Here are the first steps:
turn off the circuit breakers in the wet area, if possible;
“Ice dams form when melted snow refreezes at roof edges and eaves, and this ridge of ice prevents melting snow from draining off the roof. Since it has nowhere to go, it can leak into your home, causing damage to walls, ceilings, and insulation,” said certified microbial investigator Robert Weitz. “You may think the leak itself is the worst part, but it’s the mold that comes after the leak that will cause the most damage to your home, and possibly your health,” he explained.
to see if mold has spread. That’s why when there’s water damage, it’s important to test for mold. To avoid potential conflicts of interest, don’t rely on your contractor to look for mold. Hire an independent mold inspector, instead.
items and materials from the area;