Home Maintenance Tasks to Tackle Before Winter, From the LaMont Brothers

The weather is cooling quickly, but there’s still time to prepare your home for the first frost. From HVAC mishaps to frozen pipes, a lot can go wrong in the winter months, costing you and your family money, time, and stress.

If you’re not sure where to start or you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, there’s no shame in turning to the experts for a comprehensive yet manageable list of pre-winter home maintenance tasks. Chris and Calvin LaMont, the twin brothers behind HGTV’s Buy It or Build It, are real estate and home renovation experts with insights galore. We sat down with the LaMont brothers to get their best advice for how you can handle indoor and outdoor maintenance like pros.

“A lot of times we do the spring cleaning, but we also have to do fall preparation—especially in the northern states where it gets a lot colder,” says Chris. “We want to be able to keep the warm on the inside and the cold on the outside when it comes to the fall.”

Keep a clear mind going into the winter by tackling a few key maintenance concerns now. You won’t want to deal with inadequate insulation or a faulty furnace when the temperature drops below zero. Many cold-weather maintenance issues fall into one of three categories, so pay special attention to these features of your home for a seamless seasonal transition.

Inspecting your insulation is an investment worth making. Not only does insulation keep you warm and cozy all through the winter, but it also helps lower your energy bill by allowing your heating system to work at a lower level, explains Chris.

“Sometimes, when we have older homes, the insulation drops down to under your proper R-value [the measure of insulation's effectiveness],” he says. “By adding it to your attic, you will save