How to properly prepare your (holiday) home for winter

With the end-of-year festivities, between gifts and New Year’s Eve celebrations, the holiday budget often shrinks considerably. And unless you celebrate in your holiday home, visits are likely to become less frequent. During this season, the weather doesn’t really lend itself to back-and-forth trips either. So you’re going to have to prepare your holiday home so it gets through the winter in the best possible conditions while you stay nice and warm.

The 3 signs of a well-prepared winter

It’s not always easy to prevent the unexpected but you can minimise the risks, especially with these 3 fundamental points:

• Your boiler: make sure you’ve had it serviced in good time. There are peaks in demand for repairs with the first cold spells. This means long waits for a repair. This can affect your home. Generally, an annual visit is essential, your specialist will be able to advise you.
• Your gutters: we rarely think about them but they always need a little cleaning, especially in autumn and especially if you have trees nearby. Indeed, with dead leaves building up, they can quickly become blocked – which is bad for winter.
• Minor insulation works: make sure that all the minor insulation works are done. You want to save energy and protect yourself from the cold. It’s also useful to bleed your radiators – think about this before the festive season!

Other tips for getting through winter well

Before leaving for winter, you can also follow these final tips.

• The neighbours: if possible, think about leaving a spare set of keys with neighbours or relatives. Indeed, in an emergency they can give access to your property and save you making an emergency round trip. Also take their mobile number!
• Important numbers: as we’re talking about emergencies, make sure you have a list of local tradespeople to hand. Save their numbers on your mobile in case you’re out for the end-of-year festivities.
• Garden furniture: if you’re near the coast, it’s recommended to secure it well. A gust of wind could send your parasol and other chairs to the same neighbours who are watching your property for you. If you don’t have close neighbours, then store your belongings in a way that simply avoids theft.
• Minimum heating: It’s recommended to keep a temperature of 10° in any house, so make sure the thermostat is properly set.

Sextant’s recommendation: If you have internet in your holiday home you can have a remotely controllable thermostat installed from your smartphone. This way you can check the temperature at any time and adjust it according to the outside temperatures. We’ve covered some of these gadgets in another article: Smart devices, a windfall for your energy bill. The top way to manage your holiday home during winter!