A Louisville winter is less about deep snow and more about the mix: freezing nights, sleet, slush, icing, very dry furnace air and the lady beetles and stink bugs that moved in during the fall.
Louisville winters rarely bury a house in snow, but they are hard on one anyway. Freezing nights, a mix of rain, sleet and snow, and months of dry heated air each leave their own mess.
This guide works through those winter problems one at a time, from the front door inward, and ends with what to ask of a cleaning visit in the cold months.
NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals for Louisville International Airport show about 74 nights a year at or below freezing. The median first freeze comes around November 7 and the median last around March 31, so the cold season runs close to five months. January is the coldest month, with a normal average of 35.7 degrees.
Snow is moderate. Normal snowfall is 13.4 inches a year, most of it in January and February, with about 4 days bringing an inch or more. The bigger nuisance is the mix: Louisville's winters bring rain, sleet and snow with occasional icing, which means slush and grit rather than clean powder.
Slush carries sand, grit and whatever was spread on the driveway into the house, and it does its damage when it dries. Hardwood near the door is the first to dull, followed by light carpet in the hall.
Put a coarse mat outside the door and an absorbent one inside, and set up a boot tray. Wipe up melt water the same day; standing water and grit together scratch finishes. On hardwood, use a barely damp mop with a cleaner made for sealed wood, and dry the floor afterward. If a white haze appears on tile or stone near the entry, a damp mop with plain warm water, followed by a dry pass, usually lifts it.
January dew points at Louisville International Airport average about 26 degrees. Outdoor air that dry turns even drier once the furnace heats it, and dry air builds static. Static is why screens, picture frames and the tops of door casings seem to collect dust faster in winter.
A damp microfiber cloth beats a dry duster through these months, because it holds the dust instead of sending it back into the air. Change the furnace filter on schedule, vacuum floor registers and cold air returns, and wipe the tops of radiators in older homes, where heat bakes dust onto the metal.
Many Louisville homes are not empty of insects in winter. University of Kentucky entomologists report that brown marmorated stink bugs enter Kentucky homes in early to mid September and do not leave until March to May, and Asian lady beetles gather on buildings mostly in October. On warm winter days, both wander out of wall voids and attics onto windows and lights.
Vacuum them up rather than crushing them; the bulletins note that both can stain surfaces and fabric. Empty the vacuum bag or canister outside afterward. Window tracks and light fixtures are where they gather, so check those each week through the winter.
Outlying towns add their own seasonal chores. In La Grange, Public Works picks up bagged leaves at the curb in fall and winter as needed, which helps keep leaf litter from tracking in on the first wet days. Anchorage, a Tree City USA that calls its canopy one of its crown jewels, sees plenty of that leaf litter on entries and decks well into the cold months.
Holiday hosting falls in the middle of all this. A One-Time Deep Clean before guests reaches the baseboards, fans and light fixtures that winter dust settles on, and the seasonal calendar shows where winter fits in the full year.
The questions Louisville homeowners ask most often about this topic, answered plainly.
TotalCare Cleaning will service Louisville and surrounding areas with background-checked cleaners and is insured up to $1 million. Re-clean guarantee: if we missed something, tell us by the end of the next day and we come back to fix it. Beyond Clean. TotalCare.
