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Pat Sullivan: Winterizing your home's exterior

The snow came on Saturday, but there are still things to check on your home before the weather gets really cold.

INDIANAPOLIS — Winter weather has arrived in central Indiana and it's time to make sure your home is ready for freezing temperatures.

Pat Sullivan from Sullivan Hardware & Garden has advice on how to get the outside of your house ready for winter. 

Perhaps the easiest and most important part of your winterizing checklist is the faucets around your house. Disconnect hoses and consider putting a styrofoam cover over the spigot. It connects with a rubber ring and pulls tight to your home to insulate the spigot from the cold. They run a few bucks at the hardware store, but can help keep the spigot from freezing, especially in older homes that don't have a frost-proof spigot.

Next, cover up the window wells leading to your crawlspace. The plastic shields can be nailed to the home or weighted down with some mulch to keep them from blowing away.

Staying around the foundation of your home, make sure you have downspouts or splash blocks in working order to divert water from your roof away from the envelope of your home. 

To help keep the cold air from getting into your home, check for gaps around windows and fill them with caulk. Sullivan recommends avoiding 100% silicone caulk and instead use acrylic latex caulk with silicone in it to seal the gaps. Use a caulk gun and push up (not down, like many believe!) to close the gap.

If you have leaks in your roof or gutter, there is now a clear roof cement that will let you seal those leaks without showing that you have problems, like the old black roof cement.

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