Preparing a GTA Home for Winter

Find and seal the drafts

Drafts announce themselves on the first cold week — the cold strip along the front door, the breeze from the electrical outlet on an outside wall, the window that whistles when the wind is from the north. In older Toronto housing stock the gaps are around original frames and settled sills; in newer builds they are more often at the door sweeps and where trades made penetrations for pipes and cables.

Finding them is simple: on a windy day, move a lit incense stick or a damp hand around door edges, window frames, outlets on exterior walls, and the attic hatch. Mark each spot with painter's tape. The fixes are equally plain — weatherstripping, door sweeps, outlet gaskets, and caulking — and a full afternoon of draft sealing typically pays for itself over the season in heating alone.

• Door perimeters and under-door gaps — worn sweeps are the single most common leak
• Window sashes that no longer pull tight against the frame
• Outlets and switches on exterior walls — foam gaskets go behind the cover plate
• The attic hatch — weatherstrip the lip and check it actually sits flat
• Where pipes, dryer vents and cables pass through the wall

Weatherstripping doors and windows properly

Weatherstripping fails quietly — the foam compresses, the vinyl fin cracks, and one season it simply stops sealing. Replacing it means matching the profile to the gap: compression strips for door stops, fin or bulb seals for sliding contact, and a sweep or threshold seal for the gap at the floor. The peel-and-stick foam sold by the metre is a stopgap; it rarely survives a full GTA winter of door slams.

Windows deserve the same pass. A sash that will not lock is not just a security issue — the lock is what pulls the sash tight against the seal, so a broken latch or a failed crank means a leak all winter. Hardware repairs and fresh seals on the worst three or four windows do more for comfort than any gadget on the sill.

Clear the eavestroughs before freeze-up

Eavestroughs in the GTA fill with exactly what the street is lined with — maple keys in June, leaves in October — and a full trough in November becomes a problem twice. First it overflows, dumping meltwater down the brick and into the foundation planting bed, where it freezes against the wall. Second it feeds ice dams: trapped water freezes at the eave, and subsequent melt backs up under the shingles.

The job is to clear the troughs after the last big leaf drop, flush the downspouts until water runs freely, and check that extensions carry discharge well away from the foundation rather than dropping it at the wall. While up there, look for troughs pulling away from the fascia and re-fasten them — snow load will finish what a loose hanger starts. This is ladder work over frozen ground as the season closes, and it is a sensible job to hand off.

Exterior caulking: close the gaps water uses

Walk the outside of the house on a mild fall day and look at every joint where two materials meet: window and door frames to brick or siding, trim boards, the sill plate line, and around anything that penetrates the wall — vents, taps, cable entries. Caulking that is cracked, pulled away, or hard as glass has stopped working, and every failed joint is a slot the freeze-thaw cycle will pry at all winter.

Good exterior caulking is mostly preparation: rake out the failed material, clean and dry the joint, and apply an exterior-grade sealant rated for movement and cold — not the cheapest tube on the shelf. Temperature matters, since most sealants want mild conditions to cure, which is exactly why this is an October job rather than a December one.

Holiday lights without the emergency-room visit

Holiday lights go wrong in two ways: falls and shortcuts. The falls come from ladders on frosty ground, leaning reach, and gutter-edge work in gloves; the shortcuts are staples through wire insulation, indoor-rated cords buried in snow, and daisy-chained plugs feeding one outlet. Both are avoidable with the boring rules — proper light clips on the eavestrough or shingle edge, outdoor-rated cords and connections kept off the ground, and circuits used within their rating.

Plan the layout before climbing, test every string on the ground, and use a timer so nothing runs unattended all night. If any part of the display needs new outdoor outlets or hardwired power, that is electrical work for hire and belongs with a Licensed Electrical Contractor. For everything else, this is a job we hang, take down and box up every season — happily, with our own ladders.

Freeze-proof the hose bibs and outside water

The burst outside tap is the classic GTA winter failure because it happens invisibly. A hose left connected traps water in the pipe; the first hard freeze splits the pipe inside the wall; and nothing shows until spring, when the tap is opened and water runs into the basement framing. The fix costs nothing: disconnect and drain every hose before the first hard frost.

Then shut off the interior valve feeding each outside tap — usually in the basement near the foundation wall — and open the exterior tap to drain the stub of pipe, leaving it open over winter. Frost-free hose bibs still need hoses disconnected to work as designed. Insulated covers are cheap insurance on older taps, and if a shut-off valve is seized or missing, have it repaired in the fall while it is a small job rather than in January when it is not.