If you plan to leave your vacation home or cabin unoccupied for the winter without heating, you will need to take some precautions to ensure that the water in your pipes, toilets, or other plumbing fixtures does not freeze. Ice water expands and causes pipes or other fixtures to break. It can damage pipes, sink faucets, shower heads, and any other plumbing fixtures that contain standing water.
But the damage doesn’t stop with a broken pipe. Once frozen water thaws and flows again, it will run out of frozen pipes and fittings and can cause damage to ceilings, walls, floors, and property. You will literally have a flood in your vacation home. If you’re not there at the time (which is likely if the house got so cold), you could be seriously damaged. It goes without saying that the damage can be costly and the repairs time-consuming. This scenario can be easily avoided by the owner in a fairly straightforward way. While it will most likely take a few hours to do so, it is time that is used wisely.
Solution: empty your lines
The first step in avoiding a plumbing catastrophe is to shut off the water supply to your home or have your water department shut it off for you. Next, you will need to drain the entire plumbing system in your home by turning on all the taps. Then drain your water heater and disconnect drain hoses from dishwashers and clothes washers. Fourth, check to see if you have valves that can be drained. They are usually located near your water meter. If you have any, use a wrench to open the drain taps. If there is a low pipe without a drain cock or faucet, open a joint where the pipes connect to let the water out. The next step is to flush all the toilets and get a biodegradable and eco-friendly antifreeze solution (diluted as recommended in the instructions) in them. Then pour this solution on all your plumbing fixtures that don’t have traps, such as showers, bathtubs, sinks, and the standpipe of your washing machine. If your home has a main trap, use undiluted antifreeze.
When you return to your vacation home, you will be able to use your plumbing as usual when you turn the water back on.
By taking all of these steps, you can rest assured that you won’t face frozen pipes and water damage the next time you return to your beautiful vacation getaway.