Northern Snowbirds
 

I will be shutting down my NY home for the winter to spend the next 5-6 months in TV. My heating system up north is oil-hot water. What is the procedure to winterize my home. I will have a neighbor check the house frequently.
Someone else said to flush the toilets weekly and once a month run the dishwasher to prevent the rubber seals from drying out.

I never did this before. What is the best procedure to winterize the house. Thanks

Same boat as you...
 

I am a northern snowbird also, who leaves here end of Oct., and I shut my place down based on the advice of a friend who has a cabin in New Hampshire that he shuts down for the winter.

For every person, there is probably a different process folowed, but here is one persons only....

• I drain the water from my pipes,(easy in my house as it has a draining faucet in basement),
• Shut the Hot Water heater off,
• Set the furnace(oil, forced air) to 45 deg. so I don't have to worry about residual water in toilets.
• Empty the Ice holder in refridge in case of power outage meltdown,
• Forward the phone.

Son lives in the town so he stops by to check on things once in a while. I also have a temperature alarm wired into a phone dialer for alarming us of a problem...never has gone off!

We come back for Christmas, so for the first time I may keep the heat off when we leave after Christmas and put antifreeze in the bowls.(Have to check with NH buddy to confirm that's what he told me to do)

We are neighbors of yours from Coram and also snowbirds. We leave the heat on 60 degrees and turn down the hot water heater to the lowest setting.
We turn off the water on the toilets and washing machine. Close all blinds, disconnect the refrigerator,stop the paper, etc. We also have someone check on our house regularly. What a joy it is to be snowbirds. Have fun!

We are not snowbirds, but will be moving to TV permanently at the end of October. You may wonder then, why am I posting here. We have for years turned the water off whenever we leave for more than overnight. The reason being that we had a problem with a water leak just when we were getting ready to go on a long week-end several years ago. We were heading out the door and noticed the leak and did not have time to do anything about it at the moment. I went to the basement and turned the water off and then drained the pipes and turned the water heater off. The plumber told me, when we returned and had the problem corrected, that it's a good thing I had drained the system and took the presure off the pipes. If I had not, we would have had a flooded house when we returned. Just remember the 7 P's.

Tom,
As tepop1 mentioned, a freeze alarm is a good investment. It calls up to 5 people is the temp falls below 42 degrees. Some monitors also inform you if the power is interrupted...the units run on battery backup if needed.
Phil

I will look into it, but with oil hot water heat, I believe the water must be on for the system to work. I will shut down the washer and outside hoses and sprinkler system, but I may need to leave the water on. Like I said, I will look into it

TPOP1 & PHILNPAT both recommended the freeze alarm. I heard of this but otherwise know nothing about it. Can either of you guys or anyone else for that matter, PM me (I don't want to bore the casual posters with to them might seem like useless info) with more info about it. Thanks. Providing it isn't too costly, I will go this route.

I thought the oil/hot water systems were a sealed system separate from the plumbing.

It could be. I'm not sure. Will investigate.

Tom

Local plumber gave me this tip when I had a blockage problem one day AFTER my return from a months stay a number of years ago. It seems some "stuff" blocked the drain to my septic system and with no water flowing dried and partly blocked the drain. I would think the same could occure on a city system.

The local plumber recommended that I fill the cloths washer with water and stop the cycle at that point. Then turn off the water supply to the house and close the valve at the holding tank if you have one. Restart the washer to a spin cycle to pump all the water out of the washer and through the system. This will clean anything in the main drain pipes to the street or septic system if you have one. While the washer is running you can quickly drain the other water lines within the house.

Also you may want to get some RV anti-freeze to put in the drains and toilets. You can get the RV anti-freeze at Home Depot and a cup or so in each drain that has a trap should do the trick.

freeze alert
 

I bought A Freeze Alert and the setup looks easy. A good investment. Thanks for the heads up. Worth the price.

What about insurance?
 

When I moved to The VIllages, I listed my house in Maryland for sale. I read my GEICO homeowners policy and it said if the house was unoccupied for 30 consequitive days, the policy would be void. I called them and was told I would need to buy a policy for an unoccupied home - which was very expensive.

Luckily, my house sold in 8 days - at the asking price - so I did not need to buy that "unoccupied home" insurance.

Has anyone else heard of that or had to do it? Or do you just take the chance that the house is safe as is. I am sure any insurance claim filed would have something about the house being occupied or not.

Tbugs... I'm sure those with insurance expertise will chime in...but, I believe the definition of unoccupied means that the house is vacant -- no people, no furniture and yes, it does put you into a different insurance category.

If the house still has some furniture and you would have had to go back and forth to check on it during the period it was for sale, you would probably have been OK with insurance.

We bought down here before selling up in MD (Erie Insurance); we had friends/caretakers living in the house until it sold. Even with that, I had to switch to a dwelling only policy and Erie really didn't want to keep me for more than a year. Eventually it sold.

House is in MA, I have forced hot water (gas), I leave heat at 50 degrees and I shut off the main water.Have not had issues for three winters.....

I get furnace looked at my plumber in fall, my sister visits weekly. I keep my fingers crossed....

Another helpful hint from TOTV! For the first time we will be spending 2 months in TV and have been worrying about how our house in Sybericuse will fare during that time. In the past when we've been gone for 1 month my boss has checked on things but I've been hesitant to ask for 2 months. I never knew there was such a thing as a freeze alarm. We will now investigate. Thanks folks.