How should you prepare your property for winter?

Cold conditions, heavy rainfall and icy weather can all cause big problems for your property. Here’s what to look out for this winter, and how to treat it to protect your building.

The changing climate is the topic on everyone’s lips. Yet there’s no escaping the effects of the approaching winter, which is forecast to be harsh and cold. With that comes big potential problems for your metal cladding and other areas of your property.

You’re a considerate building owner or tenant, so naturally you’ll want to make sure you’re doing everything you can to keep your property, its occupiers and its contents safe and secure. To do that, our expert and experienced team here at Cladding Coatings have taken our years of external building maintenance year-round to guide you on what you need to look out for to protect your property this winter.

Keep an eye out for cracks

Ice cold winter weather can easily cause cracks in your cladding. And, when you spot them, you need to act quickly. This is because the repeated freezing and thawing causes the cracks to expand, and only the slightest crack is needed for water to enter your property. This causes weaknesses in the structure, corroded cladding, and even internal damage.

Cut-edge corrosion repair is the solution here. It treats the peeling and corroding metal cladding sheeting, repairing and refurbishing so it stays watertight thanks to Cladding Coatings’ industry-leading systems and processes.

Watch out for rainfall

The effects of heavy rain on your building’s aesthetic might not be top of your list of worries. Yet when the wintery showers hit, you need to check that your gutters are doing their job. Failing gutters mean that your building can’t divert water away from its roof. This might be due to old systems, or blockages from debris and foliage. But whatever the cause, poor performance means high risk of damage.

Gutter cleaning and coating are crucial points on your winter checklist. At Cladding Coatings, we clean out your gutters thoroughly and reseal any joints. Then, we apply a liquid fibre coating that creates a multi-level protection lining to prevent damage from standing water.

Pay attention to your paintwork

You know by now that poor paintwork is much more than damaging to your reputation. Flaking and peeling paintwork means your cladding isn’t protected properly, exposing your building to a host of potential problems both inside and out.

One of the ways we solve paint problems in winter at Cladding Coatings is with a system called Pegarust. Pegarust is the solvent-based version of the trusted Rust-Oleum Noxyde® paint. It’s a waterproof, elastic and flexible system with great metal adhesion properties, and can be applied in both damp and freezing conditions, so there’s no need to wait until winter has passed for cladding painting work to take place.

Winter is a tough time for your property, so keep this checklist to hand. When you know what to look out for, you can act faster and call our team as soon as you spot any issues, getting us on site quickly to solve your property problem before a crisis hits. Don’t forget that all our work, all year round is backed by the same guarantee: an absolute minimum of ten years on every single piece of work we do and every system we install.

If you’ve noticed signs of winter weather damage, or need a little more advice and information, call our team today. We’re happy to share our expertise and book you in for your free of charge site survey, where we’ll tell you how we can stop winter property problems in their tracks.