Essential Home Repairs to Handle Before Winter

There is a particular kind of misery reserved for the man who discovers, on the coldest night of the year, that his boiler won’t fire. Almost every winter emergency at home gives you warning in autumn. A free weekend in October, a few basic tools and this checklist will head most of them off.

Clear the gutters and downpipes

Leaves and moss block gutters, water backs up and overflows down your walls, and damp gets in. Clear them once the trees are mostly bare, then run a bucket of water through to check the downpipes flow freely. If you can’t safely reach them, this is a cheap job to pay for.

Service the boiler before you need it

Heating engineers are booked solid from the first cold snap. Get the boiler serviced in September or early October, bleed every radiator (a cold patch at the top means trapped air), and check the pressure gauge sits where the manufacturer recommends — usually around 1–1.5 bar when cold.

Hunt down draughts

Hold a lit incense stick or your damp hand near window frames, door edges, loft hatches and letterboxes on a windy day. Wherever you feel movement, you’re paying to heat the street.

• Self-adhesive foam strip for window and door frames
• A brush draught excluder for the bottom of external doors
• A letterbox brush
• Clear silicone for gaps around window frames

These are an afternoon’s work and among the fastest-paying home improvements you can make.

Protect your pipes

Lag any exposed pipes in the loft, garage or under-floor spaces with foam insulation. Know where your stopcock is before a pipe bursts — find it, label it, and make sure it turns. Disconnect garden hoses and, if you have an outside tap, isolate it and drain it.

Check the roof from the ground

You don’t need to climb up. With binoculars, look for slipped or missing tiles, cracked flashing around the chimney and sagging ridge lines. A single slipped tile in autumn is a small fix; the same tile after three months of rain is a ceiling repair.

Test the alarms

Change the batteries in smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors, then press the test button on each. If you have a gas boiler, fire or hob and no CO alarm, buy one this week.

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A realistic weekend plan

Saturday morning: gutters, draughts and the outside tap. Saturday afternoon: bleed radiators, lag pipes, find the stopcock. Sunday: roof check, alarms, and book the boiler service if you haven’t already.

Then enjoy the smug feeling of a warm house when everyone else is on hold with an emergency plumber. For the other half of the comfort equation, see our guide to choosing the right air conditioner for the summer.