Winterizing a home/weekend use only..

[alskee750]

So how do I winterize a home that I want to use every weekend?  The house is up north in the Catskills, NY.  So pipes freezing and traps freezing is very common. 

I read alot about totally winterizing but see no information on how to winterize but still come up and enjoy a nice weekend w/ the family w/o alot of hassel? 

Probably a vague question... but would appreaciate as much help as I could get.. thanks...

[rocking23nf]

Well will you be needing running water while you are there? what is your heat source?

Personally I would just bring bottles of water in the winter and keep your pipes clean.

Also how is the toilet drained.

[MountainDon]

Hmmm. I believe it depends on how much plumbing there is to be winterized and how much of it is essential to use on the weekends.

In our small cabin the use of a composting toilet eliminated the need to winterize a toilet. We also do not use the water heater or running water at all once freezing temperatures set in. We use a hand pump to draw water from the cistern and when we depart we leave 6 to 12 gallon jugs, 3/4 full as a head start for the next visit. We also leave a pot with a few quarts of water on the wood stove. When we return we start a fire in the stove, that thaws the ice in the pot. We then use that hot water to thaw the ice in the jugs. We also need some water to prime the hand pump. That works for us but I know it may not work for others.

The jugs are stacked in wire cases in the shower just in case one breaks when frozen. That has never happened when they are left 3/4 full. As the shower drains into a gray water system there is no trap and so no worry about freezing.

The supply lines to the shower have shut off valves at the source so those pipes can be left dry if we did decide to activate the plumbing to the sink.

If we did decide to use the plumbing it would not take too much effort to winterize our small system as it was designed with ease of winterizing in mind. It would take considerably longer with a larger cabin though, and perhaps too much to bother with.  

There are people in the village a couple miles from us who do not winterize. They leave the heat on at a low setting.

[John_M]

I'm getting ready to figure out my plumbing as well....I would like to be able to enjoy a weekend in the winter as well.  The gentleman I talked to about my well said it is relatively easy to design a plumbing system for that use.

[alskee750]

thanks all...

Well the house has a kitchen, bathroom sink/shower and that's it.  My heating source is a wood stove and electric baseboard heating.  My pipes are mainly pex tubing  with some copper pipe connections. 

I have a well which feeds my water tank, so there isn't really that much plumbing. If I can make it easy I will be willing to drain the pipes on each visit before I leave.   Currently I have some heating tape on and wrapped with insulation on some areas which froze since I couldn't make it up in about 3 weeks.  That was a lesson learned I assure you.  My toilet traps were frozen but I took my time and thawed it out and added some electric tape on the small area to avoid that happening again.

Tell me if I'm on the right track here:

I was planning on doing the following..

- Since I have yet to find drain points anywhere in the house for my pipes I was planning on adding 2 or 3 drain points.  One will be by the kitchen and the other will be by the bathroom.  All my pipes are under my house so it should not be as difficult to drain as that is the lowest point.  Also I have an air compressor which can help blow out any other water remaining in the lines.   My little place is only 750 sqft.
- I was not thinking of draining the hot water heater because I was going to leave it on since it remains warm??
- The water tank could be drained and shut off w/o any problems since I've done it before.
- Toilet and traps antifreeze and I'll be all done right?

I'm assuming that at first it'll be a pain to do it but once I get a system in place it'll be less each time I go up there.

What are your thoughts of my master plan?

[rocking23nf]

I would not leave the water tank on, sure the water inside the tank is hot, but the line coming into the tank is cold. The water gets heated after its in the tank.

Your tank might be ok, but the incoming line would have issues.

[MountainDon]

If you have an air compressor on site that may be all you need. You would need a port to introduce air to the system as close to the location where the water supply service is. I have connection I attach my air hose to. I set the air pressure regulator to 60 psi and turn on the compressor. Then I start at the furthest fixture and open valves until air blows. I make a second round after completing the first round because I'm paranoid.

I don't have a toilet to contend with but if I did I would sponge most of the water out of the tank after flush emptying it. maybe that's not needed. See the the above note on my paranoia.

As mentioned I isolate the shower. That is because I have been told that cartridges can retain enough water to cause a freeze problem. I keep the required hex wrench handy and it's not a big job to remove the cartridge when I'm done blowing the system out.

RV antifreeze in each and every drain trap will eliminate the freeze problem. A wet vacuum can also be used to suck the trap dry. That saves on the amount of RV antifreeze used.

I'm not sure about leaving the water tank full and set to warm. For one thing that could interfere with blowing the lines out with air. And what would happen if a leak developed and the tank drained? Paranoia again, I know.

[ScottA]

Blow the lines out with air as Don said. Use a shop vac to suck the water out of all the traps and the toilet. You may want to stuff rags in the openings after to keep the stink out.

[Pine Cone]

So how cold does it get where you are?  

If you have electricity, you can use old-fashioned 60 watt incadencent lights to provide enough heat to keep inside pipe traps from freezing.  

I helped run a research forest up in the mountains at 4500 feet for 6 years that got lots of weekend use in the winter months.  It rarely got below about 15 degrees Farenheit.   In winter months we drained outside pipes and plumbing were possible, and then used a combination of insulation, heat tape, drop-lights, and clamp-on lights to keep things from freezing.  

Our water system had two 5000 gallon in-ground tanks.  They were big enough we never had problems with them freezing.  Is your water tank above ground or below ground?  Any idea how deep your pipes are?

I don't recall having any problems with water heaters.  I know we did not drain them, but if it gets really cold where you are I suppose you could have problems.  Having good drain points on your water system really helps, as does having most pipes burried below whatever depth it normally freezes to.

Sounds like you're on the right track.  

[Dan]

My weekend neighbors and I have mostly setup our supply lines so it is easy to drain, I have 2 drain lines, both in the same area of my basement.  RV anti-freeze in the sink, tub and toilet traps as well as the toilet tank after as much water has been drained out as possible.  Some drain the water heater as well when leaving, others leave it full but turn it off.  If I'm going to be gone more than a week I do a much more thorough job, but even that only takes about 30 minutes to drain everything and anti-freeze it all.  But then I also have a full basement, and an electric furnace which I usually leave on keeping the cabin at 50 degrees F unless I'm going to be gone for a really long time (less than 3 cents per kwh where the cabin is, cheap insurance).

[alskee750]

How cold, it could get in the single digits at times.

So I guess I'm in the right track here and will take your feedback and get it done this weekend.  Thanks all...

[NM_Shooter]

If you pour a bit of RV antifreeze into the drains, will that eventually evaporate and let gas rise?  Or is that antifreeze somewhat immune to evaporation?

[MountainDon]

I've never had a problem with it evaporating out of the RV drains over a winter.


I modified our cabin sink drain by removing the trap as it just drains right outside to the grey water barrel in the ground, and that has never smelled. The shower in the cabin has never had a trap.

[ChuckinVa]

How often do you lose your electricity ? That water heater full of hot water is fine but if you lose your electricity for an extended amount of time and it freezes you could have a big problem especially if it bursts and thaws. You will have a mess.
CHUCK