Before a trip should I turn off the water of my house?

We have our own well and it, the water softener and hot water heater are shut off before we leave for two days or more.

We turn the water off in both our homes. Once four years ago we went to town in the winter for a shopping day and dinner when we got back an up stairs bathroom faucet connection had broke. Four thousand gallons of water later we walked in to a waterfall coming over the loft balcony, light fixture with water coming out and enough water to knock out the furnace. The Allstate insurance man said he'd seen worse in the Colorado mountains where a water line broke in a vacation house and the temperature was below zero. The basement filled full and froze solid before water was seen coming out of their doors.

Howdy!

Absolutely! We just had one of our pets teach us a lesson regarding this. We left our 5er and had to go and pickup our TV which was having some repair work. We were gone about and hour. While gone one of them jumped up on the back of the couch walked across the counter and bumped the kitchen fosset turning it on. Just about the time we returned the kitchen sink started to over flow. Hate to think how bad it would have been if we had been gone longer.

"Happy Trails"
Chiefneon

We are on a private well. When we leave for even one night, I always:
- Turn off the toilet fill valves.
- Turn off the washing machine fill line valve.
- Throw the circuit breaker for the well pump.
When leaving for more than three nights I also throw the breaker to the water heater.

Things we do when leaving on a trip:

1. Turn water off at the main valve into the house.
2. Turn ice maker off in freezer
3. turn hot water heater off
4. Raise or lower thermostat per season.
5. Ensure outside lights on. Have motion sensors.
6. Stop paper
7. Stop mail
8. Neighbor has phone number to call if emergency arises

6.7 tow rig wrote:
Turn it off or you will come home to a swimming pool in the basement. Imagine if you left on a Friday, and a pipe breaks up stairs. You come home Sunday after the water has run non stop for 48 hours. Yep, it happened and was an absolute disaster. Same goes for your camper, if you leave turn it off.

With thinking like you do , you might as well shut it off daily, what if you leave for work at 6:00 am and the pipes break and you don't get home until 6:00 pm?

OK, folks, let's all read the question:

precioustime wrote:
I turn off the main valve of the water supply of my house



but some tell me to add antifreeze in sinks and toilets to prevent roaches from coming up the pipes if the pipes dry up. Is this a good idea?

So this raises four questions:
1. Do you have roaches in your drain waste pipes?
2. Will you be gone long enough for the P-traps to dry out?
3. Does antifreeze have a slower evaporation rate than water?
4. Will antifreeze (or water) prevent migration of roaches (#1) through the p-trap?

As others have said, I always turn our water off before leaving on a trip.

Yes, turn off the water AND shut off the Water Heater if longer than a weekend.

Most of the home insurance companies will no longer cover damage that results from broken water pipes in the house. If my house was going to be left unattended with the heat turned off, then I would drain the pipes.

It may be moderately wasteful but with exterior pipes a little bit of water dripping out will keep the water in the exposed pipe from getting cold enough to freeze, should you not drain the water from your pipes.