Winterizing a Lake or Seasonal Home

[freedomatlast]

Thinking of making an offer on a lake front home today. The house would be mainly used in the spring, summer and fall. Thinking ahead.......the temperatures do get down to around 0ºF there in the winter. The house is heated and cooled with mini-splits. The water is supplied by a well.

For those that have seasonal homes, do you try to winterize the home before winter by draining the supply lines and adding antifreeze to the drains and then turn the heat off, or do you leave the heat on all winter to around 50 or 55ºF so the pipes don't freeze? The house does have a water softener, and I'm not sure how I'd be able to drain the fiberglass tanks.

 

[Slim11]

We used to drain and blow out all the water lines, then use antifreeze in the traps. Heat or no heat, I would set the heat to low. Having everything expand and contract leaves nail pops in the sheet rock etc. Addtionally, leave traps for mice and such as they will get in. Also, if you get a ton of snow, you may need to ha e someone remove it from around the doors, decks etc. Or when it melts you will eventually get wood rot.

 

[MichaelB]

We leave the heat at 50-ish. Drain the pipes. Leave water in the toilets, add a bit of mineral oil and seal with plastic. Furniture and furnishings do not like freezing weather.

Even with drained pipes, ours still burst twice due to the small residual amount left near the water main.

Check the archives, there are earlier threads on this that may be useful. Here are a couple,

What thermostat temp setting - empty house in Jan-Mar

My home is located in mid-Maryland and am planning to be away from January through March. I've done some reading/research and the typical recommendation I've seen is to set the thermostat at 55 degrees. Is there any particular reason I couldn't safely set the thermostat to a lower temperature -...

www.early-retirement.org

Need advice on being away for 6 months

My wife and I live in the southeast and recently bought a second home in the upper Midwest to be closer to grandkids. We will not have a set schedule for staying in one home versus the other. But we do plan on staying in our second home for 6 consecutive months in 2024 with the birth of another...

www.early-retirement.org

 

[folivier]

We drain and blow out our water lines and drain the water heater. Also add the pink antifreeze to the traps and toilet tank and bowl. Our heating is wood stove and electric baseboard heaters. Leaving the heat on for the winter months would be very expensive. And it's not uncommon for power to go out for a day or 2. That could cause burst pipes if not winterized.
We also have a friend we pay to blow the snow off our deck and porch.

 

[street]

We drain and blow out our water lines and drain the water heater. Also add the pink antifreeze to the traps and toilet tank and bowl. Our heating is wood stove and electric baseboard heaters. Leaving the heat on for the winter months would be very expensive. And it's not uncommon for power to go out for a day or 2. That could cause burst pipes if not winterized.
We also have a friend we pay to blow the snow off our deck and porch.

In my state this is the best safest way ^ to prepare a seasonal home. It doesn't take long to do and your time do it is cheap to having issues not doing it.

 

[Seaside FIRE]

I built a second home in ME 12 years ago. I have a plumber winterize before shutting off the power. It’s cheap insurance, as he will cover any problems with freezing. I know several who had a very costly and stressful mess when they did themselves. I've had only one small issue: one year the washing machine valve cracked; he paid to have them come replace it before I even knew it happened.

 

[misanman]

We are in Michigan, and, while we have a mini-split, the cottage is not insulated so we turn off the heat and drain the water heater and the pipes. We put recreational antifreeze in the toilets and the drains. I disconnect the sprayer hose on the kitchen sink and in the shower. We are on a well, so I take the top off and use a special (homemade) tool to release the pump connection so that any water can flow back into the well. It's not a bad job. I would say the majority of the time is spent waiting for the water heater to drain. It probably goes without saying that I turn off the water heater and pump breakers first.

 

[engineernerd]

Where we are, it doesn't get as cold nor does much snow accumulate, so this is probably of limited value, but...

We shut the water off at the street, then drain (but don't blow out) the pipes, then shut the water off where it comes into the house as well, and leave all the spigots and faucets slightly open. We don't bother to use antifreeze because we leave the heat on low. We love the redundancy built into the baseboard heating system in our current home (and the lack of any open flames), the previous one had an electric forced-air furnace that failed one year. No actual harm came to the house but in our neck of the woods mold is always a worry.

This previous home was on a well and had some above-ground pipes in the pumphouse including a length before any shutoff valve; one year that pipe burst/split. We replaced it with a flexible hose. If the pumphouse had been in a less flood-prone location we would have used the electric heat tape/pipe wrap you can buy, but we didn't want to risk a short.

We have a chest freezer in the garage so that's another argument for leaving the electricity on. We leave a Tupperware in which we've frozen some water while it was tipped over 45 degrees, as a telltale for problematic power outages.

 

[Hyper]

Wyoming.....we've hit -36f since living here.
We installed a brass ball valve in the cistern.
When it hits -20f, we open the ball valve and blow the water back into the cistern. Just drain the outside, underground line back to the cistern as well close it for water again once the temp is above -20f.
With stock and ourselves, just not worth taking a chance and weather man only accurate 5 min after the current weather!
No issues yet, thank the great Lord!
It'd be mid,late summer before thaw!

 

[Original Wally]

Sacrmento, CA here... "cold" is when it is in the 50's. DAMN cold is in the 40's.

 

[pb4uski]

We do both at our Vermont seasonal homes.

At our seasonal home we keep the heat on at 55F and turn off the water at the supply so if the heat fails and the house freezes we would have less of a mess. However, we monitor the temperatures via wifi thermostats and Blink cameras. We have a bathroom in the bonus room above the detached garage and we drain the water and put RV antifreeze in the toilet and sink traps. One reason we keep it heated is in case we have some family emergency with relatives in the area and need to come back to deal with things the property is ready for us to us by just turning up the heat and turning on the water.

At the nearby family camp, we drain all the pipes (blow out water with a shop vac on reverse) and put RV antifreeze in the toilet and sink traps.

 

[pb4uski]

...Even with drained pipes, ours still burst twice due to the small residual amount left near the water main. ...

If in addition to turning the water supply off you also open the faucets then you are less likely to have freezing pipes burst because the valves being open allows any residual freezing water to expand in the pipes. Not foolproof but we do this and have never had a problem.

 

[MichaelB]

If in addition to turning the water supply off you also open the faucets then you are less likely to have freezing pipes burst because the valves being open allows any residual freezing water to expand in the pipes. Not foolproof but we do this and have never had a problem.

I always did that. Some water stayed in the pipe in a section near the main entry to the house up against the side in the basement where there was no insulation. It burst twice in the same spot. The second plumber installed a piece that draws out remaining water, and the drywall guy sprayed some insulation between the water pipe and the side. We were fortunate, it could have been much worse, but it happened close enough to the main that I could hear the leak when first turning on the water.

 

[NameTaken2]

Complete shutdown for decades at location where temps can go sub-zero: water drained/heat off.
Documented entire home shutdown/startup processes in detailed procedures, and step right through them.
The detailed procedures will also benefit heirs that eventually inherit the property.
Draining the water heater used to be the longest step, but addressed that last year with an $18 Drummond 750GPH drill pump from Harbor Freight.

​

 

[FIREd]

I have an off-grid cabin in the mountains. Temperatures in the winter drop well below freezing and I do take a few precautions. Since I am not connected to the electric grid, I have no choice but to leave the cabin unheated when I am not there. To avoid mold problems I have installed a passive ventilation system (the fresh air intake is near the ground on the north wall and the exhaust is up high on the south wall insuring natural convection). I just make sure to leave all the cabinets, drawers, and closets open to avoid trapping any kind of humidity. Before installing the ventilation system I used moisture absorbing packs. In terms of water, I just empty both the clean water and grey water tanks.

 

[folivier]

Forgot a couple steps, I also remove the kitchen sink sprayer.
I installed Mysa wifi thermostats on my baseboard heaters so I can start heating the cabin a few days before we get there in the winter. That way the cabin is about 50º and we can turn the water on right away.
BTW I wasn't aware of this but some thermostats (including the ones on our baseboard heaters when we bought the cabin) do not turn off completely but keep the heaters at 40º. That was a surprise when we first bought the cabin and left for a few months.

 

[OK EE]

Regardless of whether you leave heat on or not (I would vote on at low levels say 50-55 degrees) I would blow out the water supply and fill the traps with antifreeze. It takes little time but can save a lot of money.

When I winterized I plumbed an H2C air fitting into the supply line. Hook up a small air compressor, regulate to 40 PSI, and open all the faucets one at a time. You'll need to hook a garden hose to the hot water heater drain valve to blow that out. SHUT THE POWER OFF FIRST! Never did a softener but I imagine the same rule applies, it should have a dip tube that would allow you to blow it out. Salt holding tank might take a shop vac to remove the water from. Remove whole house water filters, drain the canisters. Well pressure tanks should have a drain valve on the bottom.

Sink traps you can just dump marine antifreeze in. Toilets you want to flush, and right as it's about to stop flushing dump about 3/4 of a gallon in the bowl. Put the last 1/4 gallon in the water in the bottom of the tank.
Don't forget about the refrigerator/freezer, shampoo, cleaning supplies, etc. Anything that can freeze should be removed/discarded. Turn off the fridge and wedge it open. Remove food from cupboards to disincentivize critters.

 

[pb4uski]

....Toilets you want to flush, and right as it's about to stop flushing dump about 3/4 of a gallon in the bowl. Put the last 1/4 gallon in the water in the bottom of the tank. ...

I do a different procedure that uses a lot less antifreeze. I turn off the water supply and flush the toilet. Then I shop vac any remaining water out of the tank and the bowl. Then pour RV antifreeze in the bowl until it is full enough that sewer gas won't back into the space.

While I don't think it is needed, sometimes I dribble a little RV antifreeze into the tank.

 

[ncbill]

cabin in mountains here.

we drain water lines, drain water heater, leave all faucets open for expansion (we don't blow them out)

rv antifreeze in all traps.

never an issue.

 

[OldShooter]

Complete shutdown for decades at location where temps can go sub-zero: water drained/heat off.
Documented entire home shutdown/startup processes in detailed procedures, and step right through them.
The detailed procedures will also benefit heirs that eventually inherit the property.
Draining the water heater used to be the longest step, but addressed that last year with an $18 Drummond 750GPH drill pump from Harbor Freight.

​

We basically did this too. (We heated with wood, so there was no option for partial heat.) I modified the piping so that it was all downhill to the drain valves. Shutdown consisted of turning off the well pump, opening all the sink faucets to let air into the system, opening two or three drain valves in the basement and the water heater drain, then putting RV antifreeze in the toilets and tanks. 20 minutes tops.

We found a lot of OWTs about not freezing a block foundation but never had a problem.

 

[OldShooter]

... leave all faucets open for expansion ...

Be careful of low spots in the piping. These can trap water, which the freezes and ruptures metal piping. The trapped water can also keep other sections of pipe from draining. Modern PEX piping may minimize or eliminate this issue. I have not had it in a configuration where it was tested.

 

[OK EE]

Be careful of low spots in the piping. These can trap water, which the freezes and ruptures metal piping. The trapped water can also keep other sections of pipe from draining. Modern PEX piping may minimize or eliminate this issue. I have not had it in a configuration where it was tested.

To add, PEX-A might be safe (it's designed to be expanded). PEX-B is not. You can check to see which you have by seeing what type of band is around the outside of the pipe at fitting joints. If it's a white plastic ring it's PEX-A. If it's a metal crimp ring it's PEX-B.

Safer just to blow it out.

 

[cat4ever]

Can someone describe the blow out process?

 

[folivier]

After draining the lines I attach a compressor to the water inlet in the basement using a quick connect. Then with the compressor set at 10 psi I go upstairs and turn off all faucets. Wait a couple minutes then open each faucet. You will get a bit of spitting water. This is just another step to eliminate any water sitting in low areas or elbows where it could freeze and expand to crack the pipe.

 

[ychuck46]

We turn the water off at the road, open a faucet until it stops draining and turn it back off, and leave the furnaces at 55. Have never had a problem for the last 12+ years of doing this. We also have a variety of security cameras that I can check online from anywhere, and a good security system. Those are just as important with the times we are living in.