Jan. 3—LIMA — Northwestern Ohio residents got a preview of the weather coming in over the weekend with an overnight storm dropping a few inches of snow on the ground Friday morning.
A massive storm is set to cover the eastern part of the country starting Sunday, delivering more snow and temperatures below 20 degrees, and local home repair businesses are sharing information to protect businesses and homeowners.
“Just be diligent and do anything you can to prevent going into colder snaps like this, especially maintaining your equipment and servicing it on a regular basis,” owner of Brown’s Heating and Cool Brian Brown said. “Typically you’re not going to have any issues when you have inclement weather because you’ve maintained it and you’re ready for those situations. If you’ve waited to do so and haven’t had it serviced in a number of years, it’s definitely something that you should do pre-emptively going into these instances.”
One of the worst things Tyler Neidert, owner of Niedert Construction, sees when repairing homes is when snow piles up on roofs.
“That’s a big deal,” he said. “And then with the temperature dropping, the most important thing is your outdoor spigots. Anything like that, that has water running to the exterior of the home should be shut off and drained out if possible.”
Water lines can freeze leading to burst pipes, snowfall can lead to leaks and unblocked vents in crawl spaces can lead to high winds blowing into buildings.
“If you have a higher-efficiency furnace and the flue pipes come out the side of a structure, a lot of times, once that snow blows and drifts, they can accumulate snow in some of those pipes,” Brown said. “It’s important to shovel those and keep them clear because a lot of times we will get no-heats because it piled up and has gotten in or drifted over the pipes.”
Brown added that it is important to service your furnace or maintain it regularly, as well as turning on faucets to droplets as thick as pencil lead to prevent burst pipes.
“It’s coming on us pretty quickly here, but make sure your filters are changed so your unit is working at peak efficiency,” he said.
Neidert said it is also good to know where isolation valves are located to turn off pipes in case of bursting.
“The big thing is know where, in an emergency, you need to go to shut that water off,” he said. “Nine times out of 10, homes should have a main shut-off, but they’re put somewhere convenient whether it’s in the kitchen sink cabinet, the floor of a closet or even in the crawl space. And then the first thing you do after you get that shut off is to call your insurance company.”
For more information on Brown’s, visit bit.ly/420ZUPb.
For more information on Neidert, visit bit.ly/4gWm6ye.
The National Weather Service is predicting wind gusts of 20 to 25 mph on Monday, winter storm watches starting at 7 p.m. Sunday and difficult travel through early afternoon Monday.
It lists Lima as medium risk for snowfall of two inches.
NWS also advises residents to keep food, water and medications for three days, warm clothing and blankets, an updated first aid kit and a charged phone to check for emergency alerts.
For more information, visit the National Weather Service’s Northern Indiana webpage at bit.ly/41ZpP9V.
Reach Jacob Espinosa at 567-242-0399.
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