Family returns from vacation to find home flooded, frozen

fj12ryder wrote:

spoon059 wrote:
Only on RV.net can this turn into a bitter and personal attack on various ways people chose to protect their houses. You guys are truly remarkable...

You must not get out much. Or belong to many internet forums. RV.net is remarkably well behaved. Maybe even more so without sniping such as yours. :)

Case in point...

We use a house sitter. In addition to watching the house and animals someone needs to check on the heat lamp in the well pump building to ensure the pressure tank and water line does not freeze.

K Charles’ house does not sound like a mess to me. The folks who service our boiler told us about one of their other customers who have a spring in the basement of their house and flowing out of the basement; the house was built that way. Instead of a separate spring house like we have; they have a spring house in their basement. We have wet weather springs on the dirt floor side of our basement; water bubbles up in the middle of the floor. A floor drain out to the pond takes care of the wet dirt floor.

spoon059 wrote:
Only on RV.net can this turn into a bitter and personal attack on various ways people chose to protect their houses. You guys are truly remarkable...

You must not get out much. Or belong to many internet forums. RV.net is remarkably well behaved. Maybe even more so without sniping such as yours. :)

Only on RV.net can this turn into a bitter and personal attack on various ways people chose to protect their houses. You guys are truly remarkable...

ScottG wrote:
Turning off the water and opening a faucet is not going to keep pipes from freezing.

No, but it will limit the damage to 80-100 gallons rather than ten thousand :)

wnjj wrote:

2oldman wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

2oldman wrote:

wnjj wrote:
The best insurance is having a human check on it.

..checking the weather and looking at the remote thermometer on your smartphone work just a bit better.

Because we all know electronics never fail. :)

I think some of you should just stay home.

Or we leave like everyone else but don’t trust “machines” to care for our homes. Having a live human is the best way to know everything is ok. You can speak with them and hear back exactly how things are plus they can take the same measures you would if you were home. Sorry if you don’t have any friends, relatives or neighbors you trust.

I get the human aspect but if something goes wrong at 2 am and they don't check until 10am it might be too late, electronic alarm would at least alert sooner. Still have a warm body checking on things is good.

ljr wrote:
A couple years ago I left the house for the winter with the water off at the valve and the pipes drained. The furnace quit in Feb. The house valve froze and ruptured. I returned to find 28,000 gallons of water in my finished basement.

I now have the township turn the water off at the curb. That involves a fee and some hassle but it’s well worth it.

Do you need to have them turn it off? All of the ones I've ever delt with youc can turn of with a Cresent wrench or water meter key from HD

DutchmenSport wrote:
Standard practice for us when leaving for any activity where we are gone more than a day, shut the water pump off. At most, if something broke, it would only run until the water pressure ran out of the lines.

However, for the last 4 years, we've had my son living with us, with his (now almost 5 year old) son. So, the house is occupied 24x7x365 now. (hoping someday he'll finally move out again!)

Answer to that is shut supply off and drain the pressure then "at most" doesn't happen.

wnjj wrote:
Having a live human is the best way to know everything is ok. You can speak with them and hear back exactly how things are plus they can take the same measures you would if you were home. Sorry if you don’t have any friends, relatives or neighbors you trust.

Nice insult, but I certainly wouldn't expect or trust any friend to look in on my home every day, as you are implying. There are many tools at our disposal to handle this, humans being one, but not the only one.

2oldman wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

2oldman wrote:

wnjj wrote:
The best insurance is having a human check on it.

..checking the weather and looking at the remote thermometer on your smartphone work just a bit better.

Because we all know electronics never fail. :)

I think some of you should just stay home.

Or we leave like everyone else but don’t trust “machines” to care for our homes. Having a live human is the best way to know everything is ok. You can speak with them and hear back exactly how things are plus they can take the same measures you would if you were home. Sorry if you don’t have any friends, relatives or neighbors you trust.