Your house provides a warm and comfortable shelter from winter’s harshness, but even its solid composition can be weakened by freezing temperatures and weighty precipitation. Here’s how cold weather affects your home.
Frozen Pipes
When the temperature dips to extremely low levels, the water in your pipes can freeze and expand to the point that it bursts out. On top of temporarily blocking your running water, this will also cause bad leaks once the obstructive ice melts. Insulating more exposed areas of your pipe network will circumvent these occurrences and ensure your faucets and plumbing stay in working order.
Damaged Roof
Snow, wind, and even condensation can all put stress on your rooftop. You may end up with cave-ins because of the weight of snow and ice piled on the roof. Ice dams are a particularly dangerous problem. They develop when snow on the roof is melted—due to the home’s warm interior—then refreezes as it runs down to the eaves, where heat does not reach. After a while, an ice dam forms there, preventing water from moving off the roof altogether. With no place to go, it trickles into the home, where it can deteriorate the structure by causing rot and ruptures.
Routinely clean your gutters, so that you can reduce your roof’s vulnerability to such damage. Any debris or branches that get stuck in them will only encourage the emergence of ice dams.
Compromised Basement
Even if snow doesn’t directly fall on it, your foundation and basement can also experience degeneration when water melts and enters the ground. This water can accumulate to the point that it presses in on the basement walls and creates cracks where it can seep inside, eventually leading to flooding. At below-freezing conditions, the water in the earth can solidify into ice and expand, further increasing the pressure on the basement. That’s a huge perk of having your basement waterproofed—you can strengthen it against water invasion and prevent it from being structurally compromised.
