Winter travel - leaving your house

[Raz]

I know many of you travel south for an extended period in the winter. I'm curious what steps you take to avoid damage to your house due to cold. Obviously, folks who leave their home inhabited don't have an issue. But folks who leave their home uninhabited must either leave the heat on (expensive?) or drain the pipes and deal with anything that can freeze. Do you use a check list? Have you ever come home to any surprises? Raz

[Byron Kinnaman]

Good morning Raz. This will be the 5th year for us leaving in the winter. We set the thermostats at around 45°F, open the doors under the sinks, turn off the hot water heater, put a small electric heater with a 35° thermostat next to the hot water heater. So far that's taken care of all the pipes.
Unplug the garage door opener. Turn off all those things that use a remote control. Unplug all "wall warts". Turn off all computer equipment including cable modem and router.
There's two gates to the back yard, we put padlocks on them.
If you don't have a monitored alarm system, you might want to consider one. Mine has full time fire monitoring along with several detectors for intrusion. The peace of mind allows for a much more relaxed trip.
I print business cards with our cell phone numbers and 3 of our kids phone numbers. They all have individual access codes to the alarm system and keys. One them is the sales person that sold us the alarm system, and she comes by a couple times while we're gone.

The biggest headache has been the mail. We've reduced the mail so we get to very little, and few magazines. We use the temporary forwarding service provided by USPS. Forwarding the mail to one of the kids. The problem with that is they treat the temporary the same as a permanent change of address. That is they send a change of address notice to the magazines. We get no bills in the mail, all that's done with automatic bill pay and over the internet.

[John Linck]

I always make sure to turn the water off at the basement entry. Who knows if the furnace will keep the house warm? Easy to do and saves thousands of messy cleanup and repair. Failure is rare, but people buy insurance at longer odds. I also ask the neighbors to keep and eye out; they are eagle eyed.

If I remember I move a couple tons of gold bars to my bank's vault.

[Jim Bennett]

As well, most insurance policies, at least around here, stipulate that someone has to inspect the house every 2 or 3 days, to ensure all is okay. This is just good habit anyway, especially in the winter.

[mary and bob]

I bought an alarm from Amazon for about $75. Three phone numbers can be programmed into it. It will call the numbers if the temp. goes below 45, if the power goes off, and has a sensor to put on the floor to detect water. My aunt checks the house a couple times a week also, and picks up and forwards our mail. I leave the heat at 60. We did get a call for no heat last winter, called my aunt who went right over and verified the fact, then called the repair service who went and fixed the problem. We have base board hot water heat and an oil fired boiler. Something I would have fixed myself if I was home as I had done that type of work for a few years, but had to rely on a former coworker this time.

[cpaharley2008]

My house heats with hot water and I can not turn off the water while absent. I found this
FloLogic 3.0 Automatic Water Shutoff System
it monitors my use and anything extraordinary it shuts off the water. For instance a longer than usual shower or watering the lawn will activate it, but otherwise is works silently in the back ground. It also gave me a homeowners discount.

[RogerDat]

If you have a basement the suggestion of a water detector for the alarm as Mary and Bob posted seems like a good feature. Along with a good battery backup pump for the sump. I have one co-worker who sustained significant water damage due to basement flooding during a storm that knocked out power , another that was able to hand bail the crock enough to keep up with water when power went out.

Storm that takes out power may also put significant water into the sump system.

Do any of these alarm systems work with mobile phone service? Or do they require a land line?

[cpaharley2008]

I can control my furnace from my iPhone with one of these https://nest.com
But with no power I guess it would not work as my router is 120v.

[mary and bob]

Our alarm system is connected to the phone landline. I do have a sump pump, but no battery backup pump. I do have a gasoline powered pump, and a generator, and ample supply of firewood for our fireplace, BUT, I have to be home to deal with all that stuff. Hoping for winter that's not too cold, no big sudden thaw, and no power outages. Will I be that lucky??

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by RogerDat

If you have a basement the suggestion of a water detector for the alarm as Mary and Bob posted seems like a good feature. Along with a good battery backup pump for the sump. I have one co-worker who sustained significant water damage due to basement flooding during a storm that knocked out power , another that was able to hand bail the crock enough to keep up with water when power went out.

Storm that takes out power may also put significant water into the sump system.

Do any of these alarm systems work with mobile phone service? Or do they require a land line?

Mine has a battery back up and uses the cell phone system. The power can go out and the system is still active. There's two batteries one for the alarm functions and one for cell system.

I know that the people that monitor know when the power is off and the system is on battery. I'll have to ask my rep about when and if they call.

I know they call when the smoke alarm goes off, I had a fireplace smoke and set off the alarm before I could get the smoke cleared out. I immediately got a call. Later my rep. told that the fire dept was dispatched.

[RogerDat]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

Mine has a battery back up and uses the cell phone system. The power can go out and the system is still active. There's two batteries one for the alarm functions and one for cell system.

I know that the people that monitor know when the power is off and the system is on battery. I'll have to ask my rep about when and if they call.

I know they call when the smoke alarm goes off, I had a fireplace smoke and set off the alarm before I could get the smoke cleared out. I immediately got a call. Later my rep. told that the fire dept was dispatched.

So Byron your using a service or monitored system right? Do you get a break on your home owners insurance with that?

I was thinking more of the DIY isystems but had not found one that I liked.

[Donna D.]

If you're concerned about water problems, maybe turn it off at the main? For sure, shut off the water at the clothes washer, dishwasher and all the sinks/toilets. There's something about those "rubber" hoses that decide to let go while you're gone. I replace the clothes washing hoses at least every 10 years. Cheap insurance. Then, no more hoses to worry about... just the "hard" pipes. And, if the main is shut off... you'd only worry about freezing temps. Not, worn out stuff.

[FRED SMAILES]

Thought I'd throw in my nickle, we don't got pennies anymore,,,
Our insurance requires someone check the house at least every other day.
We hire a fellow that stops by the house daily, we shut off the water, the water heater, unplug computor and all plug in stuff. I set the heaters at minimum and place a small heater in the basement.
The hired man is instructed to shut off heat when outside is above freezing and take whatever steps necessary in the event of an emergency.
I trust his judgement and don't even think about the house when I'm gone.
Fred

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by FRED SMAILES

..... and don't even think about the house when I'm gone.
Fred

This is what it is all about, attaining peace of mind, no matter what level you need to go to to attain it.

[rabbit]

Winterizing house water system requires the measures required in an unheated trailer. Sure, you have heat on when you leave but the grid goes down and you don't have electric baseboard or under slab or the ignition for gas or oil-fired. Shutting off at the main entry to house avoids flooding but not burst pipes. I open faucets from top down to basement utility sink, flush toilet so at least the flush tank is empty, turn off gas to water heater and drain. With these precautions, about the only thing that can go wrong is freezing the section of entry pipe preceding the main shutoff inside the house.

jack

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by RogerDat

So Byron your using a service or monitored system right? Do you get a break on your home owners insurance with that?

I was thinking more of the DIY isystems but had not found one that I liked.

There was a pretty good discount from my home owners insurance. I don't think is quite pays for the system but it's close.

This was done by ADT and monitored by them. You can go as elaborate as you want. Here's what I have, the doors to outside and the garage from the house have sensors inside the door jam and the door. You can't get them with the door closed. There's a motion detector in the living room that covers a lot area where somebody would be moving about. There's a motion detector in garage along with heat detector. A smoke detector in the hall to bedroom.

The fire alarm is full time. If the heat detector or the smoke detector are activated the fire guys are on the way. There's two control panels one at the front door and one the bedroom, both have three panic buttons along with number pad and alarming buttons. The panic buttons are for fire, intrusion, and medical. You can set the intrusion on when you're at home and inside motion detector is disabled, every thing else is functioning.

You can add cameras and remote monitoring of the cameras and remote alarm and disarming if you want.

My biggest concern when gone was fire. By the time the neighbors would notice a fire it would be too late.

To me the full time monitoring for just fire is enough to justify the cost.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by mary and bob

I bought an alarm from Amazon for about $75. Three phone numbers can be programmed into it. It will call the numbers if the temp. goes below 45, if the power goes off, and has a sensor to put on the floor to detect water. My aunt checks the house a couple times a week also, and picks up and forwards our mail. I leave the heat at 60. We did get a call for no heat last winter, called my aunt who went right over and verified the fact, then called the repair service who went and fixed the problem. We have base board hot water heat and an oil fired boiler. Something I would have fixed myself if I was home as I had done that type of work for a few years, but had to rely on a former coworker this time.

You have to careful with those type of alarms. From the last I heard they were not legal here for calling any of the emergency services, fire, police, medical.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by rabbit

Winterizing house water system requires the measures required in an unheated trailer. Sure, you have heat on when you leave but the grid goes down and you don't have electric baseboard or under slab or the ignition for gas or oil-fired. Shutting off at the main entry to house avoids flooding but not burst pipes. I open faucets from top down to basement utility sink, flush toilet so at least the flush tank is empty, turn off gas to water heater and drain. With these precautions, about the only thing that can go wrong is freezing the section of entry pipe preceding the main shutoff inside the house.

jack

I agree with you depending on where you live. We've had 3 or 4 days with below freezing temperatures for the first time in about 20 years. Normal is 2 or 3 nights with frost. Not close to enough cold to freeze pipes. We're also pretty luck that it's unusual to loose power for more than a couple hours and that only happens about once every 10 years. Risk assessment is a good idea. knowing what is likely and not likely to happen determines what needs to be done, what a good idea to do, what you don't worry about. Each location and each house will be different.

[rabbit]

Two weeks of 20 effing below in a location where you thought January was Speedo weather might make you reassess, Byron. Of course your admonition is correct that most of us don't prep for the one in a million happenstance. Winter was mentioned in the question. If you don't have winter where you live, I guess you prep for going away in August and having your clothes or dishwasher hose play out.

jack

[Raz]

Thanks for all the responses so far. While we're not planning to become snowbirds in the near future, reading of others heading south got me wondering. Leaving your house for extended periods presents challenges. Doing it in the winter adds to these. In our case below freezing for weeks on end is quite common. Our rural location with back roads (dirt) and frequent power outages makes leaving the heat on a gamble for sure. Draining the pipes seems the logical solution. This fellow makes it sound easy
Winterizing Home Plumbing Supply and Drain Pipes To Prevent Frozen or Burst Lines In A Vacant House

Perhaps others who do it will post.
Raz