Even though the garage is merely treated as a storage space, it is a must to prepare it when the season changes.In the US, the summer days are dedicated to lawn mowing, weeding, outdoor activities, and the like. Bikes, kayaks, roller skates see much of the outside world as there’s no school and everyone’s in a vacation mood every summer. But once the summer season is over, it becomes time to store this equipment and prepare for the fall season.For proactive homeowners, the fall season is the perfect time to prepare the garage for winter. Once the snow starts falling from the sky, it’ll be extra difficult to organize the garage under unfavorable cold conditions. You’ll be ahead of everyone else if you make the most out of fall season weather. Here are the steps to follow so that you could start preparing your garage for the seasonal changes.
1. Reorganize your garage.
They say the best time to reorganize your garage is before winter starts which, to reiterate, is the fall season. An emergency is an unexpected event so the only way you can prepare for one is to plan ahead. We know there have been one too many times that you had to run through the cold to get to your garage and get a tool or equipment that you need. You’ll be able to avoid situations like this if your garage is already ready for winter by the fall season. Reorganize your tools and equipment in the garage while actively making winter tools more accessible. These would most likely include snowblowers, shovels, leaf blowers, and rakes. Easy access to these said tools would make winter hopefully a breeze.The Classic 4’ x 8’ Overhead Garage Storage Rack GR48-H from FlexiMounts can help in your reorganization of the garage. It should be mounted on the ceiling following the product’s step-by-step instruction and installation template. It boasts high-quality construction as it’s made of cold-roll steel. It can carry up to 600 pounds of weight while its height can be adjusted from 22 to 40 inches. It is waterproof, making it perfect for seasonal items. It comes with four pieces of flat hooks (GRH1) and two pieces of utility hooks (GRH3). These accessories may be used to hang bikes, surfboards, badminton rackets, shovels, axes, cages, ski gear, and the like.
2. Remove clutter or unnecessary items.
Now is also the time to discard clutter or stuff that doesn’t serve you anymore. Take your items out of the garage and onto the driveway so that you can make a clear inventory of all the items in your garage. Segregate and separate items up for donation, for discarding, and probably those that you may sell. These can also help in getting rid of pests that have taken residence in your garage. They get attracted to clutter so reducing your garage of it will help shoo them away. Needless to say, there will also be more room left for your vehicles, equipment, tools, shovels, and snowblower.
3. Examine the floor of your garage.
When you take out everything from your garage and remove the clutter, don’t return everything immediately. Check the floor of your garage first if it has chips and cracks. Disregard the cracks that have widths less than 0.125 inches. Address those that are bigger than that size as well as those cracks with one ledge higher than another. You may easily measure this by checking if two quarters (each one is approximately 0.125 inch-thick) can fit within a crack you spotted. If it can’t, then disregard and move on to another visible crack. These problems can worsen during winter so address these while you still can during the fall season. Small cracks can be fixed by yourself but for bigger ones, it’s probably best to call a professional and ask them to epoxy the floor.
4. Check the weather stripping around the entry doors, overhead doors, and windows of your garage.
Examine and replace if necessary. You may install new weather stripping yourself and it won’t cost you a lot. Buy a caulk and caulking if you still don’t have one for the DIY projects. Don’t sleep on this because the weatherstripping will protect your garage from cold and drafts. You’ll save a lot of energy running in your household. Take note that it’s better to check the weather stripping when there’s still sun. But if daylight is long over, you may still check the weather stripping by turning the lights off. Look around and whatever area has light shining through means the weather stripping there needs to be changed.
5. Check if the garage door and opener are working just fine.
You don’t really want to be dealing with any garage problems during the winter so while you’re busy at the fall clean-up, just make sure to check if the door and opener are functional and working properly. Use the remote and wall switch to check if those have any problems. An expert tip is to check the seal of the garage door and feel if there are any drafts and if it’s connected tightly to the ground. Replace it right away during the fall season so that you’d be spared from cold weather and pest invasion during the winter.
6. Winterize outdoor equipment.
If you want the good performance of this equipment in the next season, they must be prepared for winter during fall. Why? The outdoor equipment is probably gas-powered and must be winterized to prevent internal engine corrosion and deterioration. Fall is the perfect time to winterize them because they are hardly used during this season.Winterizing a piece of equipment varies on the kind of product that you are trying to winterize. Understand first what the engine of your equipment is, four strokes or just two, to determine what it’ll be needing. Please note that four-stroke engines have internal engine oil that should be changed every period while the two-stroke engines burn gasoline and oil.
