Preparing a Property for Winter
Preparing a home for winter depends a lot of course on the location, here in Praia da Luz in the Algarve, we tend to have mild Winters with some rain, especially in Spring, also although some properties are used all year round (for long term winter lets and small vacations) most are not, so our preparation tend to be a lot divided into 2 parts:
Maintenance and Preparing for Winter
This involves mostly a preemptive action, first checking and fixing problems that couldn’t be fixed on Summer or that are probably going to become a problem later on, things like the pipes (that around here in Luz tend to be older and therefore more vulnerable), checking the roofs and gutters, checking the isolation.
Also checking all the appliances, especially the ones that will get more use in the Winter, like the boilers and water heaters, the radiators, in coordination with our pool mans and gardeners, checking that trees are trimmed and don’t pose a issue to the house, that the pools are well kept for winter time (be it closed or if its heated, that its on the right settings so it doesn’t develop bacteria).
And finally doing a normal checkup like we usually do several times a year, you can check it here.
Checking Up and Cleaning Up
After the house is all set, its mostly a periodic checkup and clean up, keeping the houses clean and aired prevents things like mold, or possible infiltrations, also if something does go wrong you are picking these issues sooner rather than later when you can still do a quick fix or make the necessary preparations for a complete fix.
Be sure that although it seems like a small job its a very important one, you dont notice but if the house isn’t property maintained, when you open the house in the Summer time it will be filled with mold, all the fabric in the house will not be washable and it could have some even more serious issues with infiltration or pests.
So to finalize when Autumn arrives, its time to check and fix the house, especially of issues that might make Winter a problem and after that’s done, keep an eye on the property to make sure its aired, clean and safe.
Any questions, issues or just to say Hi, feel free to comment bellow or send us a e-mail or message, have a good one :)