Getting ready for winter

Check your boiler

Now is a good time to turn on your heating briefly to check it’s still working ahead of the colder weather. 

This way if something is not quite working as it should be, you’ll have plenty of time to book in a repair with us. 

To give things a quick check, we recommend that you turn your heating on for long enough to see if your radiators start to get warm. You can also check your electric or other heating system too. 

Looking out for damp and mould

It’s around this time of year that we can begin to see condensation form on cold surfaces and mould can appear. It’s important to treat this where you can, or report it to us as soon as possible.

We work with our specialist contractor Envirovent to tackle recurrent damp and mould or damage from any build-up of condensation. Envirovent also works with us to install and upgrade kitchen and bathroom extract fans and Positive Input Ventilation units in our homes.

Envirovent has shared some tips to prevent damp and mould from appearing where you live:

• Where possible, try to dry your clothes outdoors to prevent excess moisture from building up in your property. If you’re not able to dry your clothes outdoors, try to keep them in a bathroom with the door closed, extract fan on and/or windows open until the clothes are fully dry.
• Bathrooms and kitchens are the worst culprits for condensation. When cooking food, boiling the kettle, or taking a shower, make sure your kitchen or bathroom door is kept closed to prevent the moisture in the air from going into colder rooms which will cause condensation to form if it touches a cold surface. If you have an extractor fan in your kitchen, make sure it’s turned on when cooking.
• Similar to when cooking in the kitchen, when you’re taking a shower or having a bath make sure that you turn on your extractor fan to remove the steam and moisture that is created when running warm water in a cold environment. This will help reduce condensation appearing on your bathroom windows and walls.
• If you don’t have an extractor fan in your bathroom or kitchen, wipe down any cold surfaces when you have been cooking or taking a shower to remove any moisture that may have settled on the surface. This excess moisture in the air sits on the surface and will quickly turn to mould if left untreated.
• If you have small amounts of mould in easily reachable areas, it may be possible to remove it by using a mould-specific cleaning product from your local supermarket.

If the mould returns after your attempts to clean it or the affected area is too large for you to manage, it is important that you report it to us so that we can arrange to carry out a full mould treatment and ventilation assessment.

Blocked gutters

If you’ve noticed your guttering is overflowing, sagging or does not appear to be draining properly, it might be the case that they need cleaning. A build-up of debris caused by leaves or moss could mean that they don’t work as they should, so ahead of the winter months it’s a good idea to get them cleared ahead of the inevitable rain that will come our way!

This is something that our team can do for you, so if you think that there may be an issue with your guttering please get in touch.

Maintaining outside spaces

It’s also a good time to have a check over any plants or foliage that might have overgrown over summer. Anything that may be climbing up outside on your walls could prove to be an obstruction and may even be covering ventilation units, so it’s worth having a quick look around the outside of your property.

We’re here to support you

We understand that the cost of heating your home remains high, so if you’d like some advice and guidance check out our cost of living hub to find out more about how you can save on your energy bills this winter.

If you need any support with the issues listed here or anything else for that matter, please get in touch. We wanted to share this article with you ahead of the winter months so that we’ve got plenty of time to get any repairs booked in.