How Do I Prevent Pipes From Freezing During Winter?
My rental in Indiana is vacant. As you know it gets cold there and pipes sometimes freeze and burst when the house is vacant. What can I do to prevent the pipes from freezing until I get a tenant in there??
Thanks
In all honesty I would recommend leaving the heat set on 45 farenheit.
It will prevent the pipes from freezing and help prevent alot of other propblems as well.
Well, if the property is vacant the easiest thing is to drain all of the water out of all the pipes including the hot water heater. That is what freezes and causes the damage. No water, no damage.
Hate cold, that's why I live in Texas but still own rental property in North Dakota !
[addsig]
Draining the water will do nothing to prevent the foundation from becoming damaged because of ground heave.
The simplist solution is to leave the heat on.
If you want to winterize the house you will need to drain the water from the interior lines.
Easier said then done in most cases.
You will need the water company to turn off the water to the house. Then open the main shut off pecock and turn on all the faucets in the house, this will break the vacuum and let the water drain out the main valve into the buckets you provide. You will have to also drain the hot water heater. (make sure you turn off the pilot light if gas)
However, there is no guarantee that you will get all the water out, if there is any line that run horizontal or actually downhill, or won't let all the water out you will have some in the lines, (while this would be a rare case, this is exactly what you don't want to find out after you turn everything back on!) if the line is only half full that is no problem as the ice will expand and not break the pipe, but if the pipe is full it will break it. You could use a small compressor and hold it on the faucet with your hand and open first the cold and then the hot to make sure you are getting all the water out.
After you are done pour RV antifreeze (pink) down the drains and into the toilet bowls to prevent any water in there from freezing. Some people will sponge out the water in the toilet bowls but this will not clear the water in the sewer S, (and you wouldn't want to anyways since that would allow sewer gas to come up) so a 1/2 gallon per toilet will fix that.
As for foundation damage, I've never seen it or heard of any because of a house being winterized. Every HUD home and bank foreclosure is winterized in the fall and I've never seen one with foundation damage caused by this yet. We also winterize our lake house every year as do hundreds of others with no damage yet.
It is a lot easier to leave the heat on if this is only a temporary vacancy.
[ Edited by The-Rehabinator on Date 12/01/2003 ]
They make many items that hope to accomplish just that. Check your local Lowes or Home Depot or whatever you have around you.
Quote:
On 2003-12-01 11:12, The-Rehabinator wrote:
The simplist solution is to leave the heat on.
It is a lot easier to leave the heat on if this is only a temporary vacancy.
<font size=-1>[ Edited by The-Rehabinator on Date 12/01/2003 ]</font>
Amen brother.
Leave the heat on.
I had a HUD rep tell me that HUD is considering leaving the heat on instead of winterizing, because they still ended up with damage with just winterizing.
AH, winter months in Hoosierland. I owned a bunch of homes there (yesteryear). Winter is hard on vacant houses. Drain the lines, use antifreeze, wrap the pipes, close off the vents. Disconnect electric power to the
water heater or turn off gas line to the heater
Never saw any foundation problem caused by winter weather.