Gutters direct rainwater and snow away from your roof to prevent water from seeping in and causing damage. But gutters can’t do this very important job when they’re clogged with dead leaves and other debris.

LA GRANDE — Winters in Northeast Oregon can be unpredictable, but there are several things that can be done now to prepare homes inside and out for the inevitable blustery breath of Old Man Winter.

Before those days hit us hard and strong, consider a few ways to prep your home to avoid emergencies and ensure a safer, warmer environment for your family.

Put things in hibernation

The first thing to do is start outdoors and put all your patio furniture away in a protected building like a garage or shed for safe storage — otherwise, you just might find it has been blown over to your neighbor’s yard or onto the road or been damaged in some way by the weight of snow and wind. Drain all the water from garden hoses and store them away. Shut off all outside water sources and pack away all window air conditioners until next summer.

While outside, clean out gutters and clear them of all leaves and debris so that they are prepared to direct any water or melting snow down the pipes. Stuffed gutters can cause a pileup of snow that bends the troughs, or the snow may drip or drop over the troughs onto critical walking surfaces below, creating a possible fall risk.

Quick check of your snowblower

While you are hibernating some summer things, pull the winter things out of storage like your snow shovels and snowblower.

With a snowblower, you will want to fill it with gasoline, check the oil and make sure there are no loose parts, nuts or bolts where they don’t belong. Park the snowblower in a convenient place in the garage or other protected area until needed.

If you have an oil furnace

Outside by the oil tank, you will want to check the water trap and make sure it is empty of all water. Check the filter to see if it’s dirty and if possible clean it by blowing the dirt out with compressed air. Inside the house, a homeowner should clean or replace the furnace nozzle, and replace the air filter for smooth running.

Austin Horn, general manager at Scott’s Heating and Air Conditioning, La Grande, recommends an annual clean and check or service done on it to make sure everything is running, and the filters are clean.

“They need to be serviced every year professionally, but there are some homeowners capable of doing this on their own,” Horn said. “I would not recommend that people who don’t know what they are doing to be poking around in their furnace.”

On a professional call, there are about 15 to 20 items that need to be gone through to make sure they are where they need to be, he said. Pleated filters cannot be reused, whereas other filters are washable. It depends on the style.

“The most critical thing is to make sure the filters are clean. If your system can’t breathe, it’s not going to function,” Horn said. “Filters are the No. 1 thing to cause failure in HVAC systems.”

The most important thing is to have good air flow, which means air ducts are clear, heat registers are open without anything covering them and filters are clean.

Horn recommends that an annual service should be scheduled in September, so the homeowner is prepared and beats the rush for this kind of winterizing.

“Right now, we’re booking three weeks out,” he said.

If you have a woodburning stove

When cleaning your woodstove for the season, it’s wise to have it inspected and cleaned.

“You could have an animal, bird or anything block the chimney over the summer. Even if you burned it and it seemed good last time, it’s advisable to have it cleaned,” Frank Corcoran, of CAM DeSigns, La Grande, said.

Corcoran sells and installs woodstoves, and inspects, cleans and services them. His calendar is filling in with requests for this kind of winterizing work.

“It’s not uncommon to have a bird build a nest in the cap if it’s unused for a time. It’s pretty catastrophic to build a big fire and you have no exhaust and then the smoke billows back inside the house,” he said. “It’s highly carcinogenic and can be loaded with carbon monoxide.”

For insurance purposes, it’s highly recommended that homeowners have their chimneys and woodstoves serviced annually.

“No insurance company likes to be liable for an uninspected stove because it raises their risk,” Corcoran said.

A homeowner may attempt to clean their own woodstoves and chimneys with tools they can buy at local hardware stores, but often liability can’t be structured very well for insurance.

“The newer models of stoves often have a catalytic combustor or other baffling system, where you can’t get a cleaning tool through it easily, so we take them apart,” Corcoran said. “We also inspect door gaskets, the fire box and ceramic parts so it’s good to burn. There’s quite a bit to it with these modern appliances.”

Quick fixes inside the house

One small but important thing to do is to put new batteries into all your fire detectors inside the house. This should be done as a habit each spring and fall, but especially before winter when the furnace is being used and your electricity usage is higher.

For drafty windows, there are several things that can be done to winterize them, including installing storm windows, using {span}insulation{/span} kits, hanging thermal window fashions to trap in the heat, or covering basement window wells to increase energy efficiency. For drafty doors, use weather stripping to block air flows along the edges.

With a little forethought and help from professionals, homes will be warm, cozy and safe this winter.