If you live in an area of the country where winter temperatures fall below freezing it is important to take proper precautions with your plumbing if you are planning to take a long winter vacation. Although it is important to keep your home heated a winter storm could knock out power. If that happens the temperature inside your home will fall to equal outside temperatures in under 72hrs and there will be a high probability of damage to your hot and cold water lines including any used for baseboard heat.
To better understand the strength of freezing liquid on sealed containers you can think about the last time you stuck a soda can in the freezer to cool off in the summer … then forgot it.. If you were lucky the can dented out and the liquid inside froze solid… if not then the can burst open inside your freezer and you spent the next 30 minutes trying to clean up the mess telling yourself you will never do that again.
What steps can you take to prepare your home for freezing conditions?
The process is actually pretty simple and if you need professional help to perform the work you may want to talk to a mobile home manufacture along with your favorite plumber and hvac technician.
Draining the supply line system is important unfortunately you can not put a drain valve before your water meter so you will need to shut off your service where it enters the house and drain the system from a valve after the water meter.
Turn off supply at service and drain the feed lines you can also drain the whole house by opening every faucet to remove pressure then flushing your toilet tank and cracking open the supply line to allow the line to drain back through the valve at your water meter.
After you flush water out of toilets you will still need to keep some liquid in the bowl to reduce the chance of sewer gasses entering the home. Because straight water will freeze and has the potential to crack your toilet bowl add antifreeze to toilet bowl and this should provide some extra protection.
The traps in your sink will also need to be filled with antifreeze to keep the sewer gasses out and prevent cracking of your P-Traps.
Since you can not add antifreeze to your water heater you will need to drain it.
Open outside hose bibs that do not have a back-flow preventer and drain any supply lines.
Waste Gates
If you will be away from the home for an extended period of months you can place plugs in drains to prevent gasses from entering your home. I don’t know if there is such a plug for a toilet but since there are many ways sewer gas can enter your home you may need to hire a plumber to install a Waste Gate valve where your Waste Line exits your home
A waste gate will completely seal off your home from your residential sewer system. They are also very good to have during heavy rain storms where you expect flooding in your area. By closing your waste gate during a flood your will prevent sewer water from being forced into your home and out all of your drains…. simply thinking of sewer water flowing out your kitchen sink and all over your home can make its cost alone worth it.
Heating Systems
If you have a baseboard hot water system you will need to keep it running or have a service technician drain the system if you will be away for an extended period.
Unfortunately this will also mean having a technician turn the system on and drain it of air. Call and ask for a quote on the cost it should not be more then 2 hours labor total.
You will also want to put your heating oil company on notice that your home will or will not need deliveries of oil depending on if the system remains on or is shut down.
Gas Lines
If you have natural gas in your home you will want to turn it off at the valve where it enters your home.
Electric Service
Keeping your electric turned on is fine however you do want to turn off access to your outside outlets.
You may also want to setup a number of timers that will adjust your lights and motion detectors are not a bad idea for outside lights.
Final Note
Closing up your home for an extended winter trip of more then a couple weeks takes quite a bit of planning and this is why many people have a house sitter or relative visit their home to check for problems and flush toilets / run water in sinks to keep everything working normally.