Whether you are preparing your home for sale, or you are out looking at new property with us or others, or, you are a property owner reading this that is also feeling the change in the season, it is time to prepare our properties for the upcoming season here in the great Sebago Lakes Region of Maine.
One of the most important annual, or at least every other seasonal events, is maintenance to your heating system. Furnaces should be cleaned, all furnace and  fuel filters should be changed, and you should carefully inspect your exhaust path for any obstructions, birds or bees nests, making sure that your burned fuel efficiently and effectively exits your structure. These facts lead directly to protecting yourself and those you care about should anything malfunction in your heating systems.  Any old smoke detector should be replaced with new detectors that will sound in the event of fire, or in the presence of any carbon monoxide, also making an alert noise when the primary or back-up battery is approaching its need to be replaced.  Other efficient steps are to clean the sills in your home for effective shutting and locking of all of your windows and doors, significantly reducing drafts. If you do not have storm windows to put in place of your screens there are both indoor and outdoor kits available to install plastic vapor barriers to assist in lowering your heating cost and lowering additional chilly drafts during the upcoming heating season that typically runs into May each year. This gives us here in the Maine Sebago Lakes Region a heating season from September through May of eight months annually on average, that will require heating at some times.
Taking care of the exterior and seasonal functions of your properties now in early September before much colder weather becomes the norm, will make your efforts both more effective, and more enjoyable, including garage door and all exterior door vapor barriers are easier to do when your fingers are not numb due to the cold.
Make it a great week!