Securing the house for extended trips - recommendations/tips?

[brett]

IF your gas water has a setting called 'pilot' use this. Otherwise have it on the lowest possible heat. We shut our water off, lower the thermostat, and put the hot water heater on the pilot setting.

 

[marko]

In New England our biggest fear is the furnace going out and freezing the pipes while we're away. Happened once and we were soooo lucky to have just caught it in time!

We have cameras monitoring some rooms and the basement (for water leaks etc) as well as temperature monitors for the house, basement and hot tub.

All can be accessed from anywhere.

Then we have a basement lock that we can unlock remotely or give a plumber/police a code.

We also have a neighbor peek in every few days.

 

[meierlde]

Suggestion:
Turn off all electricity at your breaker box, then check to see what stays off when the electricity is turned back on.

The problem with this is that you can't then leave lights on a timer to make the house look occupied. Plus if you have home monitoring systems they no longer work.

 

[Ticker]

RV antifreeze is safe for plumbing - its intended use in an RV to fill water lines etc if the RV will be exposed to freezing temps. Auto antifreeze is for radiators only. Don't pour that into your plumbing!

Walmart carries RV antifreeze. The RV section is somewhere close to the auto section.

I read somewhere, buy cannot verify, that you can pour 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil down the drain, and that the oil will keep the water from evaporating.

 

[Senator]

I read somewhere, buy cannot verify, that you can pour 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable oil down the drain, and that the oil will keep the water from evaporating.

True, but when the house freezes, you need antifreeze.

 

[aja8888]

True, but when the house freezes, you need antifreeze.

It's too late for antifreeze by then...you may need a plumber instead.

 

[harley]

The problem with this is that you can't then leave lights on a timer to make the house look occupied. Plus if you have home monitoring systems they no longer work.

I think Oldernu meant that it's a good way to see what will happen during a power outage, so you can take preventative steps, like a UPS for critical systems. Making sure your wifi router, web cams, or dehumidifier turns back on automatically is good planning.

It's too late for antifreeze by then...you may need a plumber instead.

Not if you drain the pipes. The antifreeze is to stop things like the j-bends that might still have water in them from freezing, as well as avoiding evaporation.

 

[Sunset]

Create a checklist of all the things you need to do before you leave. Check them off as you do them and recheck just before you leave.

I do it on my phone so that I can look at it later (or show DW) if we have any doubts.

I have another list for my packing.

I have the same lists

I do print mine out on paper, and then check each line off as I do it. when all the lines are checked off, I do the last one on the list: Shred this list.

In case someone breaks in, I don't want them to see the list and realize we are gone for a while..

 

[Sunset]

.... We own a townhouse .....

We were there last week until yesterday, and when I shut it down for the winter I did everything I usually do. However, this place has a gas hot water heater, and I don't have any experience with them. There was no vacation setting, so I just turned it down to very low. I didn't want to turn it off, as I wasn't sure what to do about the pilot light. Do any of you have a similar situation, and if so, what's the best solution?

I had one, I left empty in winter 2 years ago.
I was pretty worried about a power failure of a couple of days, or the furnace failing to come back from a power failure.

When I would leave for a month, I turned off the water for the house. then I opened the basement hot and cold water taps and went upstairs and opened the taps. This drains out the pipes. Basically I opened all taps including the shower/tub taps.
I flushed the toilets to get the water out of the tanks.
Then I turned down the gas water heater to low.
I lowered the thermostat to 50 F

In the past here in our home, I've used to simply turn off the water heater completely and then would relight the pilot light when we came back. It got to be a pain, so for trips of 2 weeks or less, I just turned it down to low.

Our new one has a vacation mode, so that is nice.

 

[Jerry1]

In reading this thread, I'm concerned about the poor neighbor/friend that is left behind to check on your house in the cold dark winter months. I guess someone has to hold down the fort

Maybe house checking is something I should look into as a part time gig in the winter. Do you compensate your neighbor for keeping tabs on your house and being on standby?

 

[harley]

In reading this thread, I'm concerned about the poor neighbor/friend that is left behind to check on your house in the cold dark winter months. I guess someone has to hold down the fort

Maybe house checking is something I should look into as a part time gig in the winter. Do you compensate your neighbor for keeping tabs on your house and being on standby?

Yes. When we get back we take then out to dinner and tell them what a wonderful time we had in the warm weather while they were freezing their butts off watching our house.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Yes. When we get back we take then out to dinner and tell them what a wonderful time we had in the warm weather while they were freezing their butts off watching our house.

With friends like these...

We have a house-mate who watches things when we travel. He’s also in charge of mammalville and that’s a big job. Free rent is what we offer.

Have some friends who just took off for a few months in Ghana establishing a Montessori school and an auto mechanic trade school. I helped them put together a list for their house sitter and agreed to be standby if the dude flakes out or something happened.

I’m glad it doesn’t really freeze here except a couple of days in January after hearing about y’all’s preparations.

 

[Senator]

I’m glad it doesn’t really freeze here except a couple of days in January after hearing about y’all’s preparations.

When you get sub-freezing temperatures for months on end, and sub-zero temperatures on a daily basis for month's at a time, freezing is a major concern.

I had a friend that went to India for a month. He turned his furnace totally off, not sure why. The pipes froze and he had over $200K in water and freeze damages. The insurance company initially declined to cover, as it was an intentional act. He eventually settled for half the amount.

I swapped my boiler out recently as the pilot light/thermo-couple would go out regularly at least once a winter.

 

[48Fire]

I swapped my boiler out recently as the pilot light/thermo-couple would go out regularly at least once a winter.

During an ice storm and no power, our Electrical Engineering friend wired our boiler/radiator system with a car battery and solenoid! Awesome backup we had in place if necessary.

 

[RunningBum]

I have the same lists

I do print mine out on paper, and then check each line off as I do it. when all the lines are checked off, I do the last one on the list: Shred this list.

In case someone breaks in, I don't want them to see the list and realize we are gone for a while..

As an alternative, the last line could be "Set sensors for booby traps", or maybe replace the list with a shopping list that has things like buy more ammo, TNT, Doberman dog food, etc. Put some fear into them!

 

[Amethyst]

TNT? So they think you have the house wired to explode if anyone breaks in? The poor Dobermans!

It might make things a wee bit tense with the insurance adjuster, too.

As an alternative, the last line could be "Set sensors for booby traps", or maybe replace the list with a shopping list that has things like buy more ammo, TNT, Doberman dog food, etc. Put some fear into them!

 

[Sunset]

In reading this thread, I'm concerned about the poor neighbor/friend that is left behind to check on your house in the cold dark winter months. I guess someone has to hold down the fort

Maybe house checking is something I should look into as a part time gig in the winter. Do you compensate your neighbor for keeping tabs on your house and being on standby?

I had a guy check on the house every 3 days, in winter due to an insurance clause that said in winter it had to be checked that rapidly or no payout for freezing.

He of course offered to do it for free, I told him I'm happy to pay.

Couple of months later, when I stopped by, I handed him a pair of rag wool mitts where the fingers can come out, as I had noticed his were terribly worn, and $100 with a card of thanks.

 

[Senator]

Why not just use the normal USPS mail forwarding service which costs $1.00 if you register online, and free at the Post Office.
They will send all the mail to the new place, I find there is a delay of about 7-10 days for it to arrive in the beginning. They hold it at the post office for a while before sending it.

It does stop coming to your house by the day after you say to start the service.
It's good for 6 months.

I called the post office. Each person with a different last name would have to be forwarded. Both my DGF and I have different last names. My business also gets mail, she wasn't sure if forwarding business mail was allowed, but I think it is. My business gets checks periodically, and I want to get them...

I also get junk mail for other people that no longer live here, that would still arrive and fill my box. And other 'Resident' mail would also arrive. At some point, the box would over flow.

Doing the Premium Mail Forwarding, all goes to the address I want. And it can be held at the end while I am taking my time traveling back home.

I don't like paying more than I have to, but I think it's why they call it 'premium'. I will get everything that goes to the address. First class and junk mail.

 

[brucethebroker]

The FL house is easier. No freeze worries (just hurricanes). Water and HW heater off, RV antifreeze in, empty and unplug the fridge, keep an eye on the wifi cameras and thermostat. Do the same thing with the mail.

Yeah, our condo was in latest hurricane zone, and we lost electric for 14 days. Yikes-fridge was a mess.

Next time, we empty all but condiments before leaving. Next door neighbor is a year round guy. Give him the food.

 

[eastnortheast]

When you get sub-freezing temperatures for months on end, and sub-zero temperatures on a daily basis for month's at a time, freezing is a major concern.

I had a friend that went to India for a month. He turned his furnace totally off, not sure why. The pipes froze and he had over $200K in water and freeze damages. The insurance company initially declined to cover, as it was an intentional act. He eventually settled for half the amount.

I swapped my boiler out recently as the pilot light/thermo-couple would go out regularly at least once a winter.

My folks spend time in Florida every winter. Although I live close to their northern abode, there is still the worry about freezing and subsequent damage. I bought them a freeze monitor which dials a number of your choice if the temp drops below 45 F. No other fees other than the initial purchase price. You have to have a working landline for this product to work however.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0049D7FQQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[JP.mpls]

Setting up your bills to be paid automatically

Senator mentioned:
(Almost all of my bills are automatically electronically paid, and statements are emailed. I put my mail on hold with the USPS, and it is delivered when I return. If I see a paper statement, I set it up for electronic delivery.)

I've been in the process of setting up all of our bills to be paid automatically. Up until now we have been manually paying all bills on line using our bank's website.

I'm finding that most places will only allow for auto payment of bills if I let them pull directly from checking account.

This bothers me, because if something gets messed up or hacked, our checking account is a big mess, and we are basically at the mercy of our bank to reimburse the money that might have been improperly removed.

If a credit card gets hacked, I can just cancel that card, and set up a new one. Our checking account isn't messed up. This is the same reason I use a credit card instead of a debit card.

Has anyone had trouble with auto pay connected to their checking accounts? Am I being too cautious about this?

Thanks,

JP

 

[braumeister]

Has anyone had trouble with auto pay connected to their checking accounts? Am I being too cautious about this?

I've had so many accounts on autopay from my checking account for so many years I couldn't even count them all. Never had a problem.

There was one incident a year or two ago when the local water company changed their billing software and took a double payment out one quarter. I noticed and called them -- turns out it happened to a number of people. They were good about it and just asked if I wanted an immediate refund back into my checking account or leave it there as a credit. Not a big deal.

Apart from that I can't think of a single difficulty over probably 20 years or more.

 

[CoolChange]

...
Has anyone had trouble with auto pay connected to their checking accounts? Am I being too cautious about this?
....

I have never had problems; but, I still do not think you are being too cautious.

I have a single, distinct credit card which is used for these kinds of automated, recurring payments where possible. (All of my cards give rewards of some sort.)

I also have a small bank account that is seperate and only used when credit card payments are not possible or practical.

 

[harley]

I pay everything I can with a credit cards, and the ones that won't accept them without a fee (gov't bills, usually) I do with my checking account. Been doing it that way for about 15 years, and I've never had a problem. I double check my statements and transactions just to make sure, but so far so good. Knock on wood.

 

[fh2000]

I know most/all of you are retired. We are still w*rking though we do take long vacations trying to use up those PTO hours.

I have a list of w*rk related items: Such as, store work Laptops, iphones in a safe corner because company policy prohibits bringing them overseas. Change their passwords before we leave, and store these in another safe place. One year, I changed my password but did not store them. Too confident in my own memory. But when I returned, I could not remember the new passwords. I had to call company helpdesk to reset them. It was a messy process.