During winter many families take time off for a weeklong vacation. During this downtime, they decorate for any holidays their family celebrates and spend time enjoying themselves. The happy homeowners might find themselves with time to read the many magazine subscriptions the home receives, leading to a desire to do something different with the house. Decor magazines tout 24-hour projects for experienced do-it-yourselfers, but what about the people who prefer to hire a professional and luxuriate in their time off?
For homeowners who want to make a change this winter, we’ve researched eight remodel and construction services that offer winter-friendly projects. So many decorating and home improvement magazines and websites discuss the need for appropriate temperatures, but sometimes, you don’t want to wait until spring to improve things. Never fear, you can upgrade your home on the inside and outside this winter by picking these projects.
Interior Designers Work All Year Long
Interior designers number among the remodel and construction services that work all year long. If you want a new look for your home, start with this professional that creates a color palette, helps you choose a theme and an aesthetic, and creates for you a home decor that expresses your personality. Your updated home may only need replacement flooring tiles or a few new carpets to add to its warmth and visual interest.
Remodeling differs from renovation because it uses what you already own, and then adds new window treatments or furniture to enhance the look. In some cases, an interior designer repurposes furniture from other rooms or pulls older furniture out of your attic or storage unit to reconfigure it. Some pieces may need new upholstery or other updates to make them suit the updated decor.
1. Waterproof the Basement and Attic
Although winter does not offer the ideal time for painting the house, it does offer a great time to hire a waterproofing company to improve the home’s basement and attic. These remodel and construction services can complete waterproofing work to help your basement handle winter snow and ice better. A waterproofing company can install the liners that help shore up underground portions of the house and a sump pump in the basement to aid in keeping it dry all winter.
Waterproofing in the attic may require reinforcing the roof decking. Adding a liner to the interior of the roof deck can help stop leaks that develop during the winter. Adding roll insulation also helps to prevent water damage in winter because it helps the attic maintain a uniform temperature, so ice dams cannot form on the home.
2. Add Deck Drainage Improvements
Among the top wintertime remodel and construction services you’ll find deck drainage professionals on every list. Winter provides the perfect time to hire a contractor to improve your home’s deck drain systems. When it snows and ices over, your improved drainage will help protect the wood of your deck.
Besides drainage improvements, your local deck professionals can extend the deck or replace damaged decking during winter as long as the temperatures remain above freezing. Consider adding an awning to your deck or covering your porch before it snows. These two improvements don’t require spring weather to install.
3. Add Walls and Fences for Home Safety
As long as the ground does not freeze, hire fencing services to install a new fence or dividing wall to delineate your property from the neighbors’. In many locales in the U.S., the weather remains temperate enough that the ground remains tillable. Installing a fence requires a small amount of excavation work, such as post holes for fence posts or a trench to install a stone or cement wall. Of all of the home remodel and construction services on this list, this probably surprises people the most, but installing a fence tops the winter project list.
Choose from a range of materials choices, including wood, stone, cement, resin, chain link, and tree line fencing. The latter refers to a closely planted cluster of evergreen trees that form a natural barrier that people cannot see through and that would prove tough to squeeze through, too. For optimum safety, have a professional install a traditional style of safety and privacy fence, then plant the natural barrier in spring.
4. Beautify the Landscaping
No, we’re not suggesting hiring a landscaper to plant anything new in the dead of winter. Instead, have your landscaper do mulch blowing on your yard or put down pine needles. Either of these materials adds to the natural ambiance of the yard. Having these remodel and construction services performed at your home helps keep your garden beds looking great during a time when nothing typically grows in them.
Your landscape architect can also add hardscapes to your home during winter. Consider adding a sculpture or fountain to your home’s yard during winter. It creates visual interest in the gardens at a time when plants may take a hiatus.
5. Install Other Hardscapes
Winter offers a perfect time to pull your vehicle into the garage and enjoy improving the driveway, walkways, sidewalks, etc. Hire one of the local asphalt paving companies to resurface your driveway. These remodel and construction services can lay asphalt in most locations in winter. But your driveway might need more work than just a coating of asphalt.
Never fear because your local concrete contractor also works all winter long. These professionals in remodel and construction services can demolish your old driveway and install a new driveway of smooth, clean concrete. Ask your professional masonry contractor about decorative additives for cement, such as stones, pebbles, pavers, seashells, or colored stone dust. Mixing these additives into the cement can create a color pop at the front of the home or create visual interest that further adds to the curb appeal.
Avoid swimming pool projects or hot tubs during winter. These options require significant excavation and only a few states’ climates would offer suitable weather. If the project requires digging into the ground to a depth of more than four inches, it won’t prove reasonable during winter in most locations.
6. Add a Propane or Butane Heater
Adding a butane or propane heater to your home ensures you have a backup heat source if the power goes out because of a storm. You don’t even have to traverse icy roads to pick up the gas canisters for these heaters because propane delivery services will fill residential propane tanks for you. These providers of remodel and construction services also deliver butane or natural gas in some areas.
Small heaters such as these offer toasty warmth and the feel of an old-timey fireplace. Some of these devices use small canisters that you can order online and have shipped directly to your home. Although they do not typically heat a large home, most of these heaters can heat up to 500 to 1,000 square feet of space. Heaters that use natural gas require a venting line installed, but butane and propane heaters designed for indoor use do not.
The diverse designs in these heaters include some with converting grills that let you cook on the same flame that heats the home. Shop for these carefully. Some of these heaters you can only use outdoors or in a vented tent or building. Careful research can produce a heater/stove burner that lets you stay warm even in emergencies with no electricity.
7. Build Custom Interior Features
Your local building contractor doesn’t sit around bored during the coldest months of the year either. You can hire home remodel and construction services such as general contractors and master carpenters to construct new special features of your home, such as a built-in bookcase or kitchen hutch. Other ideal winter projects include replacing kitchen cabinets with custom cabinets, building a new railing for the staircase, or constructing an updated mantle around the fireplace. Add custom closets to your home or expand the kitchen pantry.
Each of these interior-only projects lets the contractor work in climate-controlled warmth. Since the work doesn’t get exposed to the cold and the contractor brings the materials inside to warm to room temperature before using them, the projects can undergo construction. It may be cold outside, but working on inside projects negates that.
8. Keep Your Septic Tank Clean
Septic tanks need cleaning every month of the year, so septic cleaning companies operate all year long. Perhaps you don’t consider this type of contractor to belong to the group of remodel and construction services for a home, but without them, rural homes would have to use composting toilets or have no toilets. The cistern that rural homes locate underground must undergo a complete pump out at least once every two years.
Don’t skip your septic pumping appointment if you reside in a rural home. Waste and gases build up in the septic tank or cistern that serves a rural home. Although each cistern has a venting area, if the tank does not get pumped out on a regular basis, it backflows into the home and the yard. That means you’d have raw sewage seeping up through the ground.
Consider the septic pumping service a requisite for curb appeal. When you properly upkeep the cistern, you won’t notice that the home has a septic tank but forget one pumping appointment and your curb appeal tanks. Instead of waiting for smelly signs that your septic needs cleaning, schedule a pumping appointment for it every two years. If you have a large family, consider reducing the wait time to every 16 months, so your septic tank does not overflow.
Other Potential Winter Projects
The vast size and climate differences between the 50 U.S. states and the country’s territories mean that winter means different things to different people. In southern California and Florida, a homeowner could hire someone to complete nearly any type of project at any time of year. In Alaska, only summer provides suitable weather for every type of renovation or remodeling project. The projects possible in west Texas would not suit Montana weather.
Consider your local climate when planning winter projects. In many areas of Texas and Oklahoma, a homeowner can hire contractors to do exterior work in December, but in Ohio or Indiana, those same projects would not prove possible. If your locale experiences daytime temperatures in the 50s and 60s or warmer, you could feasibly paint or wallpaper your home’s interior. Deck building or porch construction would number among the possibilities for exterior projects.
If you’re not sure about a project’s feasibility in your area, research it online. Look for information on the temperature ranges needed or phone a home improvement store to ask about weather ranges. Learning this information independently can save you from unscrupulous contractors who would perform work just to get paid, knowing that the temperature would not provide a suitable environment for the materials.
Consider small projects that better prepare your home for larger transformations in spring. Shop for new furniture and carpets. Pick out your new wallpaper and order it now, so you don’t miss out when everyone else shops in spring. Create Pinterest boards and digital shopping lists that make completing your final project easier.
Get Started on Winter Remodeling Projects
Winter doesn’t have to bring drear. You can brighten up the interior and exterior of your home with remodeling projects for cold weather months. Hire contractors to clean the septic tank, install flooring, deliver propane, butane, or natural gas, and much more. Winter projects can improve deck drainage or waterproof the basement and attic.
Consider winter an ideal time to plan your larger projects and shop for furnishings and carpets with the help of an interior designer. These design professionals help create a unified theme or aesthetic for your home and guide you in finding the right items to create the aesthetic. Consider reupholstering furniture or stripping and varnishing old tables and chairs for use in the newly remodeled home. Winter offers the ideal time for these eight important project types that can get your home ready for bad weather and spring renovations.
