Winterizing house

[Much2See]

I've heard conflicting opinions on this and was wondering what you do. If the house has no heat at all for the winter should we expect damage of any kind? Once it snows our road won't be accessible until the thaw (April, maybe. And people wonder why we're heading south.....)

[Much2See]

We're in upstate New York. -10F is not uncommon. Alarming but not uncommon. Thank you all for such good advice.

[John_Joey]

You never posted where your place was. If it's located in extreme cold (i.e. guessing -10f and below) I would also be concerned with the foundation. If your place is built in sand not so much, if clay then you might come back to basement walls (if you have them) that are heaved in from the frost.

A heated basement will chase the frost from the outside of the basement walls.

[NanciL]

We live in the high country of NC where many times our weather is similar to Canada.
I shut off the water and drain the entire system including the water heater. You need to make sure you have low point drains in any of the sagging pipes.
We shut off the refrigerator, but leave the freezer on
We have never had a problem with the sumps in the dish washer or the washing machine, or any of the electronics.
make sure to leave your shower hose hanging down.
Make sure to leave all the faucets open.
Make sure to empty the dish washing soap dispenser
Do not leave any canned goods or other liquids that might freeze
Put pink stuff in all the toilets and their water tanks after draining them and in all the sink and shower traps.

jack L

[az99]

I have noticed drywall cracks since we started shutting down completely. Still not worth spending $1,000 for heat.

[alfredmay]

jplante4

You are correct but you also have a leak in your system. Steam systems use water but hot water systems use almost nothing as the system is sealed (except for the air purge valve). I have a boiler and hot water heat. My solution is to install a a large pressure gauge and have my house sitter read it as part of his walk thru. I also have the sitter turn on the water once a week to water house plants and flush the toilets. Doing this allows the auto fill to replenish water to the boiler in case of a small leak.

[joebedford]

I changed my hot water / forced air heat to propane / forced air so I could shut off my H2O for the winter whilst leaving on the heat (6C / 42F). I drain the pipes and water heater (but not blow them) so freeze damage will be minimized if there is a prolonged freeze-up.

[jplante4]

Be careful of leaving the heat on and shutting off the water. If you have forced hot water heat, the boiler makeup will not happen and the boiler will run at a lower pressure. I had this happen last year in spite of explaining this all the the local handyman that visited the house once a week. When I got home, one of the circ pumps was frozen.

You can have a separate water line run to the boiler so you can shut off the rest of the house, but this leaves you open to basement flooding if a PT valve fails or the expansion tank diaphragm ruptures. If you have water pressure on the boiler all winter, I would run the PT valve overflows (boiler and water heater) to a sump or outside.

[JW_of_Opechee_S]

We have a local plumbing company come in and winterize, only $200 and call when on the way back so they open it $150. The do washing machine pump, ice maker and all the things you may forget and if anything breaks they repair for free. No heat and the furniture has never looked different when we get back.

[Much2See]

Thank you all for your advice. rjxj, you might be my neighbor.

[azrving]

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[CarnationSailor]

We live east of Seattle with a moderate winter climate (typical overnight lows above 20 degrees), but I do the following when going south for the winter (maybe more than I really need to do):

Set furnace to 50 degrees.

Turn off water to house.

Drain water lines, but not water heater. (Of course, an argument could be made for draining the water heater, but it takes a long time and I am always in a hurry to get on the road.)

Empty water from toilet tanks.

Put RV anti-freeze in toilet bowls and p-traps.

Next door neighbor does a walk-around and walk-through every 2 weeks.

[TNRIVERSIDE]

I'm sure you will get conflicting replies but here is my opinion. When I asked the HVAC people here in Tennessee I was told to keep the heat on. I could set the thermostat at 55 and be okay. Any lower and humidity would be an issue. We have hardwood flooring and the higher humidity could cause damage to the floor too.

[darsben1]

Many houses have no heat for the winter usually foreclosures. They seem to suffer no damage. The furniture in your home might be a different story which I cannot speak to with no heat.
When we owned a stick and brick I winterized including antifreeze in the pipes. I also kept the thermostat at 40 degrees the antifreeze was for peace of mind should the furnace go out and no one came by to check for a few days.