I need to winterize a house in northern Ohio. Other than making sure the pipes have been drained, what else needs to be considered?42 responses total.
be sure to leave the windows open exactly 8 inches.
Bought a house in Northern Ohio, Jamie?
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Was she the one in the striped stockings?
You might want to buy some of the antifreeze they sell at camping stores, for winterizing RV water systems, and pour it down all the sinks and toilets. The idea is to displace the water in the traps so it doesn't freeze and burst the pipes. Don't forget to empty the toilet tanks. Will the house have any heat at all? If not, you should probably drain the water heater, too. Also the heating system, if it's hot water heat.
Yes, gull is correct on the antifreeze. Also clean the fridge and leave it open to prevent mildew etc. Turn off gas and the main at the electrical box unless you intend to leave heat running. .
You might want to remove paper products. I know some people who left a package of toilet paper at their cottage. Mice got into it and made a mess.
Put foam tubing around the pipes.
Cover the windows with plastic - the stuff that sticks to the frames, sort of like cling film for windows. That will help keep drafts out.
just how much winterization is needed? o humans w/in 100 feet for ever?
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How's your mother doing these das, btw?
Foam tubing around the pipes does nothing if the pipes are drained, which they have to be if the house is left all winter without heat. Same for sealing windows - what good is keeping out minor drafts if the house is left without heat? Some ventilation is desirable to prevent condensation and subsequent rot.
Yes, of course. That's the point of the foam tubes.
What are the foam tubes supposed to do, then? (I have foam tubes around my exposed hot-water pipes, but they are to keep the hot water from losing heat.)
#7 Lynne's response about rodent infestation should also remind you to buy several poison mice traps [Dcon] and put them about the house. There is no need tohide them unless you have a stupid pet with you. Even then, this can be one of the very last things you do. Mice feel safest next to a wall, but if you do nothing you will find that they were everywhere. To feel safe about the traps, leave a list of bait locations on the kitchen table. Turn off your power at the main. With circuit breakers, the main is obvious. With a fused circuit box, you yank out bakelite MAIN and RANGE cartrige fuses and put them back in upside-down. Write down the meter readings so that you know no one stole power from you. Make a decision as to whether you will have the utilities disconnected or left on. A nice chunk of you utility bill is a service fee. You might think it swell to save the money with a disconnect, but the connection fee and hassle when you do want power should be considered. Clean the refrigerator. Roll up a newspaper section and prop each door of the refrigerator open. Use other sections of the newspapers as dust covers for shades and curtains. Remove the bedding. Stow the pillows a blankets in a locker. As you were already advised to drain pipes and RV anti-freeze the drains, you must also remove other items that can be damaged by freezing: canned goods, cleaners, pop.
Tape a list of whom to contact in case of emergency or property damage. Do you have good relations with a neighbor? No one else will care if a tree falls through your roof or if kids use your house as a love shack. A Numbers to CAll List might get important information to you faster. Does your insurance company know that the house will be vancant. An empty house might be a higher risk and you could need to pay higher premium (depending on what kind of use the house had before).
Yes--if the insurance company is aware the house is empty, the premiums will go up significantly, or they may refuse to insure it at all. If you want to make it less obvious that the house is utterly unoccupied, it might be prudent to arrange for someone to plow the driveway/sidewalk when it snows. I would guess that most municipalities would *require* you to keep the sidewalks cleaned.
leave the electrical service on and put in several timed lights to make it look like someone is there from time to time.
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15: They're to prevent the pipes -- not the water not in them -- from freezing.
Ummm.. The pipes are already solid.
Yes, the pipes are metal or PVC, and won't "freeze" (further). Also, the foam tubes will not even then keep the pipes warmer. There has to be a heat source to warm things.
You absolutely need someone you can trust to go into the house every couple of weeks or so. One of my supervisors was trying to sell his house when it was vacant and a racoon found its way in and could not get out. It died in a wall behind the bathtub and the smell and repair bill were outrageous.
Have you considered renting the house instead of leaving it vacant, Jamie?
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23: When things get colder, they get more brittle. The same thing'll happen to pipes which don't have foam tubing round them.
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You can have the post office forward all your mail, for free. My neighbors take in my mail for free and we pick it up once a week. Why dust every couple weeks? I wait until I have visitors. Why heat an empty house?
Without people there will not be dust. Strange but true, and back when I checked on a friend's vacant house every couple of weeks I never had to dust.
Human skin cells make up a lot of dust.
My apartment was pretty dusty after I did not live there since July. The house is not well sealed, the drafts probably blow bits of fuzz off of blankets.
Yes, everyone is right about the dust. A well sealed house in a clean environment wouldn't get a lot of dust. My parents' cottage, built in 1920, had plenty of gaps everywhere and the problem abated with rope caulk. But for most of the time, the use of newspapers as dust covers was not sheer silliness. Regarding insurance: If the insurance company already rated the dwelling as a vacation home, the additional risk factor would already be part of the premium. I don't think that the premium goes up much: I might ask my ex-wife if she knows what is typical.
Foam tubes on pipes.
Re #27: at best, foam tubes on pipes in an unheated house only slows down temperature changes by a few hours, if that. Also, the "brittleness" of pipes will not be a problem, especially because they are empty, but also because such types of pipes are used in refrigeration service with no problems from being "brittle".
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Re #36: If you leave the heat on you *definately* need to have someone check on the house every couple of days. The heating plant can fail -- by staying off *or* by staying on. When I was a kid we came back from a day trip once to find the basement thermostat had failed and it was 95 degrees in the house.
[my apology for echoing #6 regarding refrigerator care: It's the hazard of
not reading the entire item after it has run for several days.]
Regarding insurance for a vacant house, John in #18 had it right. My ex-wife
wrote this to me:
As far as a vacant house is concerned, it is not so much how much
more it would cost to insure, but whether you could get insurance for
it at all. It almost goes into a "high risk" category because it
could be a target for vandalism losses. If insurance is available,
things like glass breakage wouldn't be covered. I think all you
could hope for is getting some fire insurance. I would think that
the premium level for a vacant house is at least 50% more than for an
occupied house, if not more.
If there is no water in the pipes (drain them) they won't burst, and this is much cheaper than paying to heat a house. We don't heat the house we are building and it still stays above freezing, but it is well insulated. The ground heat comes up through the uninsulated floor.
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My ex-wife added a postscriptum to her other comment: "The other thing about the vacant house, is whether it is truly vacant (no stuff, no people) or unoccupied (stuff in the house, no people). If a home is unoccupied for a few months, like for remodeling or an extended stay in Florida, then it is not vacant."
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