Irish people are certainly no strangers to adverse weather conditions, particularly over the last few years. Alarmingly, the surge in severe weather conditions has not affected Irish people’s tendency to allow their home insurance to lapse. This would prove detrimental in the case of a storm… We have put together a guide on how to prepare your home for bad weather. Read below:

Insulation

Make sure that water pipes and water tanks in the attic are insulated with good quality lagging.

Check the exterior walls of your home for holes: even small holes where cable wires or phone lines enter your home can be an entry point for freezing air. Purchase a tube of foam insulation and close them up. Then, use weather stripping to remedy any cracks around your doors.

Heating

Check your heating system – Make sure your boiler has received its annual check and is in full working order.

In the case of an oil heating system, make sure you have at least 2 months fuel in the tank.

Plumbing

Know where the stopcock that turns off the water is located and make sure it works

If a pipe bursts, turn off the water at the stopcock, switch off the central heating and any other water heating installations and open all taps to drain the system.

Keep your gutters clean: full gutters increase your chance of having ice form on your roof, and that’s not something you want to mess with! Set aside some time to clean your gutters out before the freezing temperatures get here.

If you have outdoor plumbing fixtures you should also tend to these to ensure they don’t freeze – drain outdoor taps and shut off water to these if possible, disconnect garden hoses. If you can, it might be worthwhile insulating outside tap pipes with towels.

Keep Your Pets Safe

Move pets to a secure location. Now is the time for Benson the outdoor dog to become Benson the indoor dog, or at least secure him in a well-insulated shed/doghouse.

Avoid entry of rodents by blocking all openings, particularly if you live in an older house. Your home is a feeding frenzy for these little creatures, do everything you can to prevent them from entering. If you do encounter an infestation, take all necessary precautions to eradicate them from your home and prevent future infestation.

Protect Against Storms And Floods

Ensure your external walls and windows are adequately water resistant – there are various products and sealants and varnishes available to do this.

If there are immediate floods warnings for your area, then it might be worth using sand-bags and wrapping to protect your property.

If you live in a flood risk area, keep personal and expensive items as high above ground level as possible during more risky periods.

Secure any items that could be moved during a storm.

Ensure you know where water, gas and electricity mains are – should you need to turn them off at any stage.

If you are unfortunate enough to suffer any property damage in the wake of a storm, ensure you contact your insurer immediately to initiate the claims process.

If necessary, arrange for emergency repairs to be carried out to stop any damage from getting worse.

Where possible, keep evidence of damaged goods and/or receipt of everything that you replace. Photographic evidence is useful.

If you need to move out of your home while it is being repaired, then alert your insurance provider of this.

Avoid entry of rodents by blocking all openings, particularly if you live in an older house. Your home is a feeding frenzy for these little creatures, do everything you can to prevent them from entering. If you do encounter an infestation, take all necessary precautions to eradicate your home and prevent future infestation.

By following these helpful tips, you could save yourself both financial headaches and heartaches along the way. And if you have any further questions about how to protect you home from bad weather, do not hesitate to contact the experts by phone on 01 603 2999 .

Make sure you’re covered this winter with Insuremyhouse.ie. If you have an y question about your house insurance call us now on 01 603 2999 to get started with a new quote.