How to close up house for 6 months?
 

I need to leave town for 6 months. Is there a standard procedure for preparing the house? I hear I have to leave the air conditioning on. I also heard I can not shut off the water because the heat pump / air conditioner needs the water. Is that true?

Hiring a Home Watch Company is well worth the price. You can avoid many costly problems. Ask your House Watch professionals for advice on closing up your home. There are MANY companies that offer this service. See other threads on this topic.

:ho: Great advise---could not agree more!

We were told by the builder to leave the a/c on set at 82 to avoid mold and humidity problems. He has left empty houses set at this for a year at a time and never had a problem. We told our lawn service to send our service receipts to our northern home address for the four months we are gone. We have neighbors just keep an eye out for anything unusual. A friend has a key. It works fine. Our next-door neighbor, who can only come down for 2-6 weeks at a time, pays $100/month for a house watch, and frankly, we are always picking up for her around her house--poa newspapers, packages, those lawn thingies the landscapers plant in your yard when they fertilize, phone books, etc. I swear I don't know what exactly they do, but she feels good with it, so we don't say anything.

That's my take. We leave the water on. What's to freeze?

I used to leave my water on but the toilet broke when I was away and flooded my home causing major problems. Lesson learned. I now have a home watch for $40.00 a month...well worth it since last year my AC went due to red ants eating away at the underground lines. All covered under a Warranty but had I not had a Home Watch my home would have been full of mold.

Closing procedure
 

We leave the air on set at 82 with a humidistat. Only goes on when humidity gets above 60%. We shut off water and Hot water heater. Put saran wrap over toilet seats to keep water from evaporating and turning toilets yellow. Turn off ice maker. Leave the fridge on. Our house is all electric and our bill ussually runs about 30.00 a month.

Actually, my husband says we did turn our water off to the toilets. And we have a friend come in twice a month to check the a/c.

Who is your home watch service that only costs $40/month?

Affordable Home Watch...Rich and Marge

I've put together a check-list for our home. Here are the items that are included. I hope it helps.

Turn off the main water valve in the garage (right hand side near overhead door)
Put washing machine water valves in the “off” position (If you don't turn off the water)
Turn off the ice maker and empty it.
Turn hot water tank to the “pilot” position
Bring all of the lanai furniture into the garage
Place saran wrap over toilets and have the lids down to prevent evaporation
Set the A/C to 80 degrees and the Dehumidistat at 50%
Throw out food in the fridge that will not keep for a long period of time
Lock all doors and windows and place dole rods in the sliders. Lock Lanai door.
Close all blinds
Close all drains in sinks
Put garage door in “lock” position
Open all closets and the shower door for circulation
Prop open dishwasher
Disconnect whatever can be unplugged including cable
Pour cap-full of cooking oil in garbage disposal and turn on for a couple seconds
Close the gas line on the golf cart and run the gas out of the carburetor
Check furnace filter
Put trash out
Check that the sprinklers are set correctly and are turned on
Redirect the mail (temporary address change – can be done on-line or mailed in)
Put Directv on suspension
Prior to leaving, submit a change of address for all magazines (can do on-line)
Put open box of baking soda in fridge and freezer
Put Daily Sun Newspaper on vacation
Turn off the breakers for the Spa and lock the breaker box
Tape an index card inside mailbox to remind of temporary address change
Gather all important papers (insurance policies, etc.) that you want to take
Gather and take medications

Xavier

Actually, there are things that really should be done on an ongoing basis such as running the dishwasher and washing machine at least once a month (every 2 weeks is better) to keep the seals from drying out. Also, a good homewatch person will have weekly eyes on things like bugs, leaks, dropped packages, malfunctioning sprinklers etc....etc...etc. Much better than walking away and leaving the home closed up.

Call the village sitter, see if she can home watch for you come once a week sends you photos and a checklist of what's being done at the house.....pm me for phone... Leaving your house for six months is taking a chance

U could pay me to live in for you. :pepper2:

I love it when a plan comes together.

:2excited:

:gc:

From your picture, I'm guessing you don't do windows...

Leave a pair of old flip flops on the front stoop.

Actually, my mower (sends pictures and emails) and the neighbors keep an eye on the outside for us. We didn't even have to ask them. We have a friend who walks through about twice a month or when she's playing a golf course close-by.

As far as the dishwasher and washing machine goes, I really doubt that the water that stays in the pumps will evaporate in anything less than 6 months (probably a year). Heck, our toilets didn't go down a quarter of an inch while we were gone for 5 months. [Did I mention that I put a few drops of Clorox in each toilet bowl before I cover them with saran wrap?] Anyway, we've never had a problem.

We do leave the fridge on. Last year we also let the spa run as well. it only runs one and a half hours twice a day. It was as clean and sparkly when we returned as when we left. Our same (walk-through) friend checks the water level and tablets. Only once in 5 months did she add a little water and it really wasn't necessary even then. The tablets didn't need replenishment at all. In fact I had to take some out of the feeder when we got home.

If it makes the home owner feel more secure and comfortable, by all means hire a house watch person. Most do an excellent job and everyone needs to make a living. Helps keep that economy going too. My theory is: Don't make it more complicated than it really is!

Xavier

I may be wrong but isn't there an insurance you need to have if your home is vacated for a certain period of time?

Not that I know of, but I'm sure if one asked an insurance company, they would happily say yes and sell you an extra policy.

We have no home watch company in MI like they have here. We have been taking care of this ourselves, following a previous poster's long list of preparations.

We've never had a problem with seals. We turn the fridge, water, ice maker off. The water is drained. Cover the johns with saran wrap, open undersink cabinet doors. We have the furnace and hot water heater checked every year before we leave, and a person walks through every week.

Frankly, I would be quite happy if my dishwasher broke, since I've never liked it.

Just a couple of things we do in addition to the excellent advice already given:

1) we have marked several switches in the circuit breaker box with colored tape - red for ones which should be turned off (esp. water heater), blue for ones which must be left on (esp. a/c).

2) put the carts on their BatteryMinders - keeps them trickle charged and desulphated

3) lock the door linking the house to the garage

4) turn off the fridge after putting its contents into the chest freezer - cheaper to run

We also use a humidistat, and have never had any problems with dishwasher etc. seals drying out. And a trustworthy neighbor checks around, inside and out, once every few weeks.

Remember that your electricity bill includes a monthly service charge, so you will never get the bill to zero however much you turn off.

Another thing we do is unplug everything unpluggable--tvs, printer, fridge, washer & dryer--despite the fact that we have a whole house surge protector through SECO.

Learned the hard way about plugging car battery into trickle charger, but fortunately it was still under warranty, and towing and new battery were covered 100%. But now we know. The only other car we've left unattended is a '67 Mustang, which always fires right up after 6 months. But it doesn't have any electronics. Duh.

We built a new house in Sanibel last year. The insurance co. Requested a copy of our contract with a home watch service before they would our house. We are gone for about five mos. a year. Our excellent, outstanding home watch person is Julianne at Peace of Mind home watch (there r two companies here with this same name). She charges $50/mo. but is so worth it. Her no. is 352-250-2984.

I'll Get-R-Done

:spoken:

unless you have something special(?) hooked to your heat pump/AC there is no water connection to heating and cooling units.

HAving been in the business of manufacturing heating and cooling systems heat pump as well as regular....I am unaware of any water connection unless you are using one of those systems that heats your water as well.

btk

We bought a house last August which we are using as a vacation home until my wife retires in the fall of this year. I was recommended to get some one to check on the house when were away and we chose 'The Home Watch' and Jeff Halstead. He charges $10 per visit ( once a week) and we are very happy with his service.

thehomewatch@yahoo.com 352-409-6733

I was told to set the A/C at 85 and leave the water on.

Bill & Sheila

I am using Jeff too. So far, so good!

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Could you share the phone # for rich and marge ? Do you know if they are taking on customers ? Thank You