How to Protect a Home When Away in Winter?

kidMike writes "I have just accepted a new job in another state, requiring me to relocate. I'm going to keep my house in New England. As I watch the winter storm problems and electrical outages across the country, how do Slashdotters protect their houses (or cabins) when they are away in the winter? Is there a device that will call me if the temp in the house drops below a certain level? How about a broken pipe flooding the house? How can I keep advised of problems happening hundreds of miles away? (There will still be broadband at the house.)"

Comments

Rent it out

[camperdave]

So, just rent your house out for a few months. Let the tenants phone you if there are any issues.

Re:Rent it out

[WallaceAndGromit]

If all you are woried about is burst pipes, the easier solution may be to simply have the water turned off outside the house at the street (which the water company should be able to do if you have public water). Then drain the water out of the pipes.

Re:Rent it out

[thc69]

If all you are worried about is burst pipes, you aren't familiar with the results of leaving a building unoccupied. The only way to be sure it will remain in good condition is to have somebody live there every day. Sure, they won't clean the shower the way you like, and they'll break your toaster oven, but the house won't get robbed by a burglar who targets unoccupied houses (happened to my parents at two different houses), won't get burst pipes, won't have a roof leak that destroys everything because it wasn't fixed, won't get infested with pests, and so on.

If you rent it to somebody, you also get money.

Re:Rent it out

[Not_Wiggins]

Renting, at first blush, seems like a good idea.
However, consider that it really only works that way when there aren't any problems.

There are more than enough horror stories surrounding the "absentee landlord" scenario.
What if there really are major repairs that need to be made?
Or, more to the point, what happens if you get troublesome tenants? What if they don't pay or keep the property in good condition?

It'd be recommended to hire a trustworthy management company to rent/manage the house (but, even then there can be problems: like, reporting the property as vacant while collecting rent on it).

And this is your home, not a "rental property." Would you be comfortable coming back to your place with it requiring work to bring it back to the state you remember? Not that renters are bad people... but, you're more likely to see damage to property when the people residing there don't have an attachment to it (same holds for those facing foreclosure... ever seen a foreclosed property where people have poured cement into the pipes for spite sake? I have.).

Sure... could be an opportunity to make some money while away. If the gig is short-term, I'd look for a good friend to mind the place while you're away or see if you have a friend that wants to live there while you're gone.

If the gig is longer term, sell the house and buy something newer/better when you return.

Re:Rent it out

[smelroy]

You could also get an automatic water shutoff system. They monitor the water flow in the house and if flow exceeds what you have programed in as normal usage then it will cut off the water. Of course if you are going to be gone that long you might just want to cut the water off to the whole place anyway. Here is one of the automatic water shutoff system's I know of. (Or as always, just Google it.

A house sitter.

[Atlantis-Rising]

Friend or relative you can trust. I sincerely hope you are not looking for a technological solution, because I left the autonomous robotic house minders and the holographic repair people in my other pants.

Re:A house sitter.

[smallfries]

It would easiest if you post the address here and slashdot and tell us when you're going to be away...

Re:A house sitter.

[Anonymous Coward]

I sincerely hope you are not looking for a technological solution

You must be new here.

It's obvious

[malsdavis]

I would of thought most Slashdotters would prefer to protect their home with either a few Tesla coils or Prism towers. A Mammoth tank left behind can be advisable when your away base-raping however the airfield should normally be able to take care of any surprise threats.

Web cam

[wile_e_wonka]

Option 1: Set up a web cam pointed in your living room, and put a thermometer in view. Then you'll see if there's a broken pipe, and you can read the thermometer.

Option 2: get to know your neighbor.

Wireless Cellular Camera

[Hackeron]

My friend doubt one of the nokia cellular cameras and it runs off the mains with a rechargable battery. You can text it to send you a picture of your home at any time, it will also send you a picture when the power is disconnected and when there is motion. Cool little thingy.

People next door

[Mike1024]

Is there a device that will call me if the temp in the house drops below a certain level? How about a broken pipe flooding the house? How can I keep advised of problems happening hundreds of miles away?

Well, you could tell your neighbours that you're going away and ask them to check in on everything every once in a while.

Granted this isn't a high-tech proposal, but it would probably be effective.

broadband?

[kryten_nl]

There will still be broadband at the house.
Throw in a subscription to WoW and I'll look after your house as long as you like ....

Protecting your house

[Foofoobar]

I usually set up a series of pits and snares and then stock secret rooms with orcs and kobolds. It doesn't hurt to circulate rumors of a powerful demon living in the cellar in local taverns either.

Um, that COULD work

[svunt]

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Obviously...

[astrosmash]

Buy an old P-III tower for 50 bucks, set it up with Fedora Core 6, Apache, and a dynamic DNS service. Add a cron job to reboot the server every Sunday, and maybe enable LogWatch to email you daily status updates. Finally, place the tower on the bare concrete in your basement.

With this set up you can check on your house from anywhere at any time. If the server stops responding, your house has been destroyed.

Re:Obviously...

[overkill1024]

If the server stops responding, your house has been destroyed. ...or the internet went out, but anything without internet access is essentially useless anyway.

Yes.

[pizzach]

The most sure fire way is to burn it.

...I'm sorry, what were we talking about again?

Re:Um, that COULD work [SPOILERS]

[jpardey]

Well, aside from two dead bodies, the hotel was in good shape. I'd rather have "REDRUM" on a door than a burst pipe, I say.

Not to duck the question

[tkrotchko]

But plenty of people winterize cabins for the winter. I would contact the state extension office for booklets on the subject.

I know that you have to shut off the water, some people put plywood on the windows. Some people put a minimal amount of heat to avoid sub freezing temps inside the house itself.

getting to know your neighbor.

[Harmonious Botch]

Get to know his neighbor? In person?? You must be new here.

Re:getting to know your neighbor.

[yobjob]

You must be American. Everyone in Australia and the UK watches neighbours.

Become enlightened

[tezbobobo]

The truly enlightened person would not care about material possessions. As such, it is better to protect yourself than you possessions.

Even Better Question

[popo]

I took a few weeks off work, and returned to find my favorite geek website had replaced its standard content with content completely unrelated to the topics which used to make it great. Even more disturbing was the fact that no one else seemed to notice.

What should *I* do?

Re:Plumbers advice.

[ve3snw]

Shutting off the water is just the first step. Open the lowest tap and let the system drain. Fill the drain traps and toilets with antifreeze solution so they don't freeze up and crack. I don't know how you heat your place but gas furnaces and water heaters have a "vacation" setting so check your heat sources. A couple of light timers would be handy to make the place look lived in. You should also check with your insurance company as many policies state that the dwelling must be occupied to be insured, or at least checked by a responsible person daily. Don't forget to let your mailman, paperboy and local cop know that you are going to be gone for a while. Good luck with your endeavors.

Heat it without Electricity

[scoove]

If you're worried about bursting pipes (which you should be - it's an incredible expense if it goes and runs for days or weeks). The best solution is to keep it heated and you can do that easily without electricity, assuming you have either natural gas or propane.

Buy a blue-flame wall-mount heater and have it professionally installed by a plumber. It is a 100% efficient heater that runs off of propane or natural gas and uses a manually-sparked pilot light. You can adjust the manual thermostat mostly which is pretty unsophisticated - e.g. low to high - and it'll cycle on and off depending upon need.

We've done that ever since a bad ice storm took our power out for a week and now that we live on a farm, it's even more important. Plus, the 100% efficient heating is a nice supplement to less efficient furnaces. Put them on the lowest level of a home - e.g. the basement - as heat rises. It makes a nice supplement for heating basements too incidentally.

The small versions are well under $100 and don't take a lot of time to install if you're going into an unfinished basement. For not much more, the big units really cut your electric heating costs and pay for themselves usually in 1-2 years since your regular forced air furnace has to run a lot less (and at best, they're less efficient).

Re:Heat it without Electricity

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice idea but if you are not going to be living there, why heat it at all? If the house is more then 30-40 years old (which is common in the north east), I don't think one small heat source in the basement will cut it either. My moms house (about 90 years old) has pipes that freeze when it gets below about 5 degrees outside and they live in it and maintain the house at roughly 68-72 degrees.
IMHO, I'd call a plumber and have him "winterize" the water and drain systems and have him walk you thorough what is required so you can do it yourself with some confidence the following year.

There are many things to consider for this do be a DIY though. The hot water heater, the drain traps, any supply lines for an ice maker, washing machine lines, toilets, the system may need to be blown out with air like an RV, etc..

As a bare minimum though, if the submitter does nothing else, at least close the water supply to the house, close the first valve within the house (if equipped) and electrically shut off the hot water heater at the breaker panel and open the drain valve on the hot water heater (some heater drain valves may be clogged with muck so make sure it is actually draining, you may have to cycle that valve a few times with water pressure still applied to get water to start flowing and clean it out, on a side note, everyone should clean out their hot water heaters like that at least yearly, I have have well water with a lot of floaties and I do it at least twice a year). Keep that valve open as long as your gone as well so any residual water that leaks through the shut off valves can drain out as well. The hot water heater drain is typically one of the lowest drains in the house so it would be a good choice to use.

I know this stuff sounds like a PITA but a broken water pipe is even worse. My neighbor had those old school water filled radiators and a boiler for heat. Something happened to the boiler while she was away and all of the cast iron radiators cracked when the water froze inside them. It cost her something like 10K USD to get everything fixed.

Protecting Your Home

[almostmanda]

I suggest leaving your youngest child at home to take care of the place. Leave adequate supplies, like paint buckets, firecrackers, cardboard cutouts of famous people, some 1950s gangster films (that you wouldn't let him watch otherwise), a tarantula, and a blowtorch. That should take care of everything.

Check your insurance

[gvc]

Many insurance policies won't cover unoccupied houses. Check with your agent and secure additional coverage if necessary. And hire somebody to look after your house. For money. With well defined responsibilities, like checking the house every k days and keeping a record.

Re:Check your insurance

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't actually get insurance on unoccupied houses. Well, I could only find one price quote for insurance on a vacant house, and that was $14,000 per year on $280,000 of insured value. Your mileage may vary (I was trying to insure a house in KY).

Seriously. When we moved and put our house up for sale, we called State Farm and said, "our house is going to be vacant because we are moving and selling". State Farm Agent said, "no problem, just pay $36 for a vacancy rider and you are covered". Three months later, house still for sale, we get a letter: "We will not be renewing your insurance because your home is vacant". I call 20 insurance companies. No big name companies (State Farm, Allstate, Safeco, Farmers, etc.) would give a quote. They said, "Too much risk." I said "What kind of insurance company are you if you don't buy risk?" Independent agents won't even talk to me, because the work to insure a house that is for sale by an absentee owner won't generate any long-term commissions. One specialty insurer quoted the $14,000/year figure.

The research I did indicates that legal interpretations of vacancy exclusions on insurance policies can vary a lot (a pile of dirty clothes on the floor might mean the house isn't vacant). But if you tell your insurance agent you want to insure a vacant house, you will get dropped like a hot potato.

Re:Plumbers advice.

[gent00]

Call a plumber experienced with winterizing vacation homes. Install a monitored alarm and have a friend setup as a contact. Try a construction/home maintenance forum.

Here's what we do

[Phat_Tony]

We have two old (1913) non-winterized summer homes that are empty 9 months out of the year. Nothing's fool proof, but we, and our neighbors with neighboring cottages, haven't had any really huge problems in, well about 60 years, and since all seven cottages that are contemporaries of ours are still there, apparently nothing cottage-ending has occurred in 90+ years.

Turn off the water. Open the taps and drain the system backwards from the lowest point. Flush the toilets. Unscrew the j-traps under the sinks and dump them.

Empty, unplug, open, and defrost the fridge/freezer.

Shut off the power at the primary circuit breaker.

Buy a rubbermaid container and put any liquids you're leaving at the house in it- shampoo, 409, drain cleaner, liquid soap, batteries, whatever.

Unplug everything from all the wall outlets.

Lock up.

Keep your roof in good repair. Don't wait for it to start leaking before you replace it, just replace it every 15 years or whatever. Keep an eye on it.

Find someone local who you trust, preferably a neighbor or someone whose commute takes them past or right near the house and pay them a small fee to drive by the house and take a look once a week, and walk around it once a month. Even if they're a friend and insist that they'd be happy to look after your place, insist upon paying them something. It's only fair for their time, and it makes it more likely they'll take the obligation seriously.

There are no guarantees, but it works for us. We've only had one problem big enough to file an insurance claim over for one of the two cottages in 60 years. They're both in the woods and a tree fell on one. The property watcher noticed it the next day and the damages weren't too exorbitant.

Good luck. Install a burglar alarm.

Find a Neighbor you can trust

[BobPaul]

As a kid, our neighbors, who were getting up in age, began heading south every winter. They just gave my parents keys to the house in December when they left and trusted that we could take care of it if anything happened.

To facilitate this, he rigged up a 120v relay to a simple mercury thermostat. If the temperature in his basement dropped below 40--kept at 45 normally I think--a bright light would turn on in their bedroom window, which happened to face our house. It would be hard for us not to notice.

If the power went out, well, then our power was out also and we could go over and see if we needed to fire up the generator he kept in his garage or anything.

I'm sure something similar could be done to trigger a phone call. Just run the pushbutton leads through your mercury thermometer.

You could also install a managed or unmanaged security system that would alert you if doors or windows were opened. I'm sure some of these companies also have temperature sensors they can add.

Hire a house sitter.

[falconwolf]

Better than paying someone else to house sit, rent the house. Instead of having an expense you get an added income. If you're worried about not being there while renting the house out, then hire a property management company. Or you could get some realty companies manage the property. And they aren't that expensive, the going rate is around 5% of the rent. Odf course you'll still have to pay for any repairs but even then the managers cannhire and work with whoever does the repair work. Another possibility is to House swap. This is where you find someone where you're going to who wants to go where you are. You live in their house while they live in yours.

Falcon

Winterize your home

[BanjoBob]

I winterize my mountain cabin every year and since the late '60s have not had a problem. Considering that it gets to -40 or colder every winter in the mountains where it is, I know that things would freeze if I let them. The frost line is at least 2 feet below the surface too.

Turn off all the water at the mains. If you use a well, drain the lines, tank and pump. (You'll need to bring water when you return to prime the system but usually only 5 gallons or less is needed.) Usually a valve in or near your front yard will control the water to your home. Just turn it off. If you can't find it, there is also a valve in your home that does the same thing but, it is exposed.

Then drain everything that has water in it -- don't forget the hot water heater, toilet tanks, etc.

Pour a half bottle of antifreeze down the sinks, into the dishwasher, toilets, and other plumbing that can't be drained. If you are on Septic system, make sure you use an antifreeze product that won't kill your tank!!! Leave all the doors under sinks and such open to allow residual heat to get to the pipes.

Have a nice trip! Bring priming water with you or get some near by when you return. Turn on the power. If you're on a well, prime the pump and turn it on. Run the water for about 5 minutes on every faucet to flush the antifreeze away and clean the pipes and you're back to normal.

Winterizing a house - I do it 200+ times a year

[keraneuology]

I oversee the winteriztion of vacant homes 200 times a year or more. In five years I have never once had a problem If the work was done correctly and nobody tampered with the plumbing system. 1. Turn off power to your hot water heater. If you know what you are doing and can do so safely, physically remove the hwh breaker (or fuse). If not, put a piece of tape across the breaker which should now be in the off position. Turn off power to the well (if any) in the same fashion. Leave a reminder on the electric panel to ensure that you turn the water back on BEFORE you turn on the hot water heater. Turn off the gas valve to the hot water heater as an extra layer of protection - if you fire up your hwh before it has been refilled you are out one hwh. 2. Turn off the water supply to the house. Master valves on both sides of the water meters if you are on municipal water. (If you are on a well, once the power is off open a faucet and let your pressure tank run dry at this point - different than opening the valves in the step further down. If you don't do this you run the risk of losing your pressure tank which can cause your well to burn out. My house was sitting vacant for about 2 years before I bought it and this was a problem.) 3. Hook up a hose to the hwh and drain the water to your floor drain, sump pit or out the window. Opening the highest hot water valve in the house will help it drain quicker. 4. Open the lowest and highest cold water valves in the house to allow those pipes to drain 5. Using an air compressor, blow out the supply lines throughout the house. Any decent plumber can tell you how or google up some accurate information. 6. Scoop out as much water from toilet tanks as you can. 7. Get the *PINK* antifreeze (RV/Marine). Pour generous quantities into the toilet tanks, bowls, and down all of your drains. Pour some into your dishwasher and washing machine and run a partial cycle (no rinse) to get the antifreeze into the pumps and internal hoses. If you have a pool or hot tub you will need to take some additional steps, for the most part along these lines. Above ground pools and some in-ground pools without rigid covers get a large, inflatable air pillow floated in the middle to make the cover slope down towards the edges so the water and ice doesn't puncture a hole in the middle, gets some (but not all!) of the water drained and may or may not need plugs for the water intakes. Your miles may vary, consult a pro on these devices. If you have boiler, consult an expert. Draining water and/or filling with antifreeze is a bit involved and entirely inadvisable in some cases - I've seen many older systems go down for winterization then never come back up because of issues with old seals, corrosion and other nasties. If you have steam heat then things can become even more muddled about. Again, consult an expert. Finally, on your way out, hit the power to the master breaker. When you return you will be able to restore power to the house and will be glad of the tape (or removed breakers) that serve as a reminder not to turn on the well or hot water heater until you are actually ready to do so. Turn off the gas/propane at the master valve.