Winter-Proofing Your Home: 8 Ways to Get Prepared

As the days get shorter and the evenings colder, you’re probably thinking about making your home winter ready. You might be digging out the heated blanket, stocking fresh logs for the fire, or putting away the garden furniture.

But getting prepared isn’t just about comfort — it’s about safety, savings, and peace of mind. Here at RedClick, our home insurance team has seen how cold snaps, frosty periods, and unexpected storms can cause costly problems like burst pipes or damaged roofs.

That’s why we put together eight top tips on how to get your home winter ready, one step at a time.

1. Service your central heating system

Whether you use gas, oil, solid fuel, or electricity to heat your home, you’re going to be asking a lot of your heating system during the chilly season.

Make sure it’s in tip-top condition by scheduling a service and a check-up by a registered expert.

An efficient boiler or heating system uses less fuel, reduces bills, and runs a lower risk of breaking down during freezing weather. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) estimates that a boiler that’s working efficiently could save you up to €150 a year — and keep your family cosy all winter long.

2. Insulate where possible

While fully insulating your home is a significant investment, it might be one worth exploring if your budget allows — the SEAI estimates that without proper insulation, up to 30% of your home’s heat can escape via your roof.

In the meantime, there are plenty of less expensive steps you can take to seal draughts, improve air tightness and protect your property.

Lagging pipes and insulating water tanks in particular can help you avoid burst pipes, which can create serious headaches with flooded floors and damaged ceilings.

3. Check and clean gutters and downpipes

We know it’s a messy job, but someone’s got to do it — if you don’t clear your gutters and downpipes of leaves, sludge, and other debris they’ll eventually get clogged and might even collapse, causing significant damage to your home.

If you’re able, grab a ladder, a bucket, and some rubber gloves to clear it out yourself. If not, arrange for a local handy person to come and help you out. This is especially important if you live near trees which can generate a lot of fallen leaves in autumn.

4. Maintain proper fire safety precautions

A roaring fire, a wood-burning stove, or a hot radiator is a lovely comfort on chilly days, but it does come with a level of risk to your home.

Take some time to double check your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms — they should all have testing buttons, but if you’re in any doubt, replace them with new, fully functioning versions.

If you have a chimney, it’s important to get it cleaned and inspected regularly, as chimneys are the leading cause of fires in Irish homes, requiring thousands of fire brigade call-outs every year.

5. Build up emergency supplies

Every winter, when the snow, ice, and storm warnings start, there’s a run on local supermarkets for emergency supplies like bread, batteries, and water.

Get ahead this season by filling a box with some essentials so that you can ride out rough weather and wait for storms to pass.

Met Éireann advises residents to:

Keep a small supply of non-perishable, easy-to-prepare foods
Buy a five-litre bottle of water with a long shelf date.
Store extra supplies of essential medications
Maintain an adequate supply of fuel, or even an alternative energy source
Invest in batteries, torches, and a suitable snow shovel

6. Carry out garden maintenance

Have you got a lovely sun parasol, awning, or swing chair in your garden? Any of these items could become a flying missile in a storm. Before the weather changes in earnest, take a couple of hours to clear your garden of any light furniture or temporary structures that might move in strong winds. If you have large items like trampolines, consider tying them down to keep them secure.

You should also cut back overgrown trees, trim overhanging branches, and check for loose roof tiles or damaged flashing.

7. Get smart about home security

Burglaries increase by as much as 20% when the evenings grow darker; in fact, last winter, there were roughly 17 recorded residential burglaries per day.

If you’ve been debating investing in smart security solutions, now might be the perfect time to take the plunge. There are a range of options on the market that can keep your home and family safe — directly from your smart phone. Consider:

Alarm systems that can be set or unset through an app
CCTV that can be accessed from your phone or a home TV
Smart lighting that can turn on or off automatically
Advanced doorbells that feature cameras and two-way messaging
Smart plugs that can be programmed to turn off (for Christmas trees, for example)

8. Review your home insurance policy

We can’t prevent every unexpected event or accident from happening; we can only prepare ourselves to the best of our abilities. That’s why it’s so important to make sure you also have financial protection in the form of home insurance.

Download and review your home policy to check that you’re covered for common problems like burst pipes as well as a complete rebuild should a serious incident occur. Underinsurance is a big issue in Ireland at the moment — you’ll need to ensure that your current policy reflects an up-to-date rebuild cost so your home is fully protected.

If you have affordable home insurance with RedClick, you may also be able to avail of extra benefits like our Emergency Home Repair service, which means you can get expert help when you need it — whatever the weather.

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