How to Winterize Your Home with Winter Home Safety Tips

Smart Home Safety Tips to Winterize Your Manufactured or Mobile Home

With days at their shortest and colder weather upon us, it's time to think about how to prepare your manufactured home and family for the winter months ahead. Read on for some of our helpful winter home safety tips.

Stay warm and dry with these suggestions to keep your mobile or manufactured home in good shape.

Freezing temperatures and winter storms can damage mobile or manufactured homes, but with some preparation, you can help keep your home safe. These are a few steps to protect your home's exterior.

• Clean out your gutters. As leaves fall, you’ll want to make sure your gutters are cleared of any debris so they can function properly for rain and melting snow. Getting ahead of potential ice dams can save your gutters, your roof, and your home’s interior from water damage and other catastrophes.
• Get your roof inspected. This is the time to find out if you have any missing shingles from last summer’s storms. Schedule a roof inspection and service to replace sealant or shingles.
• Drain your outside water hose. This simple step can save you a lot of trouble during a freeze. Water left in the hose exposed to freezing temperatures can cause damage to your pipes. Remove your water hose, drain it, and winterize your outdoor faucets and pipes with insulation. (It’s smart to wrap your water heater in insulation, too.)
• Trim your tree branches. The weight of freezing rain and snow on overhanging tree limbs can cause them to break and harm your roof or other property. Pruning your tree branches now will not only keep you safer this winter, it also stimulates new tree growth in the spring.
• Inspect your skirting. Make sure you have proper skirting on your home. This helps retain heat in the winter and keeps the unwanted critters out. Preventing heat loss also keeps your bills lower and puts less strain on your heating system.
• Check windows and doors. Replace any broken or cracked windows and caulk any openings where drafts occur. Check around entry doors to notice where light appears, indicating openings for cold air to get in. Replace or repair weather-stripping around doors.

Take these precautions to keep you and your family safe this winter.

Think ahead in preparing for power outages. Generating heat and light can come with some dangers.

• Protect your family from carbon monoxide (CO). Leave home immediately if your CO detector alarms. Call 911.
• Never use a stove to heat your home (unless it is a HUD-approved wood stove). Keep grills or camp stoves out of the house.
• Have extra blankets, sleeping bags, and warm layers of clothing to maintain body heat.
• Use electric space heaters with automatic shut-off switches and non-glowing elements. Make sure to keep them away from any flammable materials, such as curtains or bedding. Do not place space heaters on furniture or near water. Keep children away from heaters.
• Use battery-powered flashlights and lanterns instead of candles. If you must use candles, be sure they are never left unattended.
• Make sure generators are at least 20 feet from your home.
• Check out these additional power outage tips and information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to keep your family safe.

Include these must-have items in your winter emergency kit.

Prepare yourself and your family for unexpected needs during snowstorms, freezing temperatures, and power outages by assembling a winter emergency kit. Every household should have one in case of extreme weather. Here’s what we recommend you include:

1. Battery-powered flashlight (with extra batteries)
2. First aid kit
3. Blankets and extra warm clothes (gloves, socks, hats, etc.)
4. Non-perishable food items (with a manual can opener)
5. Plenty of bottled water
6. Portable charger to charge your cell phones

Keep your kit somewhere safe from flooding water and easily accessible, so you know just where to find it and are confident if an emergency winter accident happens.

Don’t forget to replace those batteries!

Nobody likes the constant ‘chirp’ of a smoke or carbon monoxide detector with dead batteries. However, they are an important reminder. Replace the batteries for your alarms and detectors within the household to ensure your family’s safety.

Let 21st Mortgage help you find the best manufactured home insurance coverage for your needs every season of the year.
Contact us at 844-343-9408 or Contact us online.