Closing up a seasonal home for the winter

A home that sits empty through the winter fails differently than a home someone lives in. A small leak that an occupant would hear and mop up runs for weeks. A furnace that quits goes unnoticed until the pipes behind it freeze. The single most expensive thing that happens to a secondary home is a burst pipe, and it almost always happens while no one is there to catch it.

Closing up a home well is not complicated, but it has to be thorough. This is the checklist to work through before you lock the door on a home for the season.

Water is the first thing to deal with

Water causes more damage to a vacant home than any other single cause, so it gets handled first and most carefully.

• Shut off the main water supply. If no one is using the home, nothing needs water. Closing the main valve means a failed supply line or a cracked fitting cannot flood the house.
• Drain the pressure out of the lines. After the main is closed, open the lowest faucet in the house (often a basement or utility-sink tap) and a high one, and let the lines drain. A line with no water and no pressure in it cannot burst.
• Decide on the water heater. If the home will be truly cold, drain it. If you are keeping the house heated, you can leave it but turn it to its lowest or vacation setting.
• Don’t forget the outdoor lines. Disconnect and drain garden hoses, shut off and drain exterior spigots, and if the home has an irrigation system, have it blown out before the first hard freeze.
• Protect the traps.Drains you have emptied still have water sitting in their P-traps. Pour a little non-toxic plumbing antifreeze (the kind sold for RVs) into each drain and toilet so a frozen trap doesn’t crack.

Keep the house warm enough, deliberately

If you are not draining the plumbing entirely, the house has to stay warm enough that nothing freezes. Cold air settles, and the pipes most at risk run through exterior walls, crawl spaces, and unheated garages, the coldest parts of the house, not the thermostat’s location.

• Set the thermostat no lower than 55°F (about 13°C). Lower than that and pipes in cold cavities start to be at risk.
• Open the doors of cabinets that have plumbing behind them (kitchen-sink and bathroom-vanity cabinets on exterior walls) so household heat reaches those pipes.
• Replace the furnace filter before you leave, so the heating system you are now depending on isn’t running through a clogged filter for months.
• A house that depends on heat to survive depends on the heat actually staying on. That is the case for a temperature sensor (covered below), not a nice-to-have.

Make the house look lived-in

An obviously empty home invites trouble. A few cheap measures change how the house reads from the street.

• Put a couple of interior lights on timers, varied so they aren’t all on the same schedule.
• Stop mail and package delivery, or have someone collect it. A stuffed mailbox and a pile of parcels is the clearest empty-house signal there is.
• Arrange for snow removal and, in season, for the lawn. An unshoveled driveway after a storm is as telling as uncollected mail.
• Confirm your alarm system is armed and that its monitoring contact information is current, including who should be called, in what order.

Walk the building envelope

Small problems become large ones over an unattended winter. A walk around the house before you leave catches most of them.

• Clean the gutters and check the downspouts. Clogged gutters in a freeze-thaw climate are how ice dams and roof leaks start.
• Look at the roof for anything loose or missing, and at the flashing around chimneys and vents.
• Check that exterior doors and windows close and lock fully, and that weatherstripping is intact.
• Trim back tree limbs that overhang the roof or could come down on a power line in an ice storm.

Empty what spoils and remove what attracts

• Clear the refrigerator and pantry of anything that will spoil. If you are turning the refrigerator off, leave its doors propped open so it doesn’t grow mold.
• Take out all the trash. An empty house with a full bin is a house with a pest problem by spring.
• Store anything freeze-sensitive, paint, certain cleaning products, canned goods, wine, somewhere that will stay above freezing, or take it with you.

Give yourself a way to know something is wrong

Everything above reduces the chance of a problem. None of it tells you when one happens anyway. For a home that will be empty for weeks, the most valuable single addition is a way to be alerted remotely:

• A temperature sensor that alerts you if the house drops toward freezing, your early warning that the heat has failed, while there is still time to send someone.
• A water-leak sensor near the water heater, the washing-machine connections, and under sinks. The best versions pair with an automatic shutoff valve.
• A trusted local contact, a caretaker, a neighbor, a property manager, who can physically check the house and act on an alert. A sensor that pings your phone is only useful if someone can get to the house.

This is exactly the gap HomesRun is built to close. An empty home under a freeze warning is the most acute item the oversight feed surfaces, and the team-and-vendor layer is how you make sure there is always someone who can be sent. The checklist above stands on its own, work through it whether or not you use any software at all. But the part a checklist can’t do for you is watch the house in February.