When enjoying the winter months at home, it’s hard not to let your thoughts wander to your vacation home. How is it coping with the colder weather? What will you find when the weather gets better, and you visit for the first time? Well, the fact that you’re reading this article is great news because prevention is always better than desperately seeking a cure!
Turn Your Water Off
Firstly, this is one of the most effective and powerful tips you’re likely to see on this topic. Of all the burst pipes and frozen pipes in vacation homes, a significant percentage were preventable. By cutting the supply of water, you make frozen/burst pipes unlikely. Even if the pipes were to burst, you prevent many hundreds of litres of water from damaging your vacation home.
After turning off your water, drain the home’s supply to rid all water from the pipes. If you just turn off the water, you’ll still have lots of water sitting in the pipes and you haven’t helped the situation. Drain the water supply by turning on faucets, flushing toilets, and putting salt into sinks and toilets to prevent freezing.
Insulate Your Pipes and Storage Tanks
Next, pipes in colder areas of the property are at a higher risk than pipes in other areas of the home. For example, this includes garages, lofts, and cellars. In these areas, use insulation to provide a protective covering for the pipes. If you have thin pipes, you’ll need thick insulation to protect them from the harsh weather.
While this article is mainly discussing pipes, those with older water storage tanks won’t quite have the insulation of newer models. Therefore, you’ll need an insulation jacket to keep it from freezing.
Trace Heating
In the past, lots of vacation homeowners have left their central heating system on a timer to prevent frozen pipes. However, this is expensive and unnecessary in most cases. Instead, you need trace heating – cables that are installed along the pipe and activate when the temperature drops below a certain level. This kind of heating is also usable on drums, vessels, tanks, valves, and other components.
Check the Boiler
Each year, it’s also wise to get the boiler checked. Just before winter, ensure that the boiler is working as it should prevent breakdowns and other problems while you’re not there. What’s more, engineers should also test the thermostat and you can talk with them about antifreeze and other potential solutions for your property. This tailored advice could be the difference between walking back into your vacation home with a smile on your face and with a sense of dread.
Other Tips
- Invest in a leak detection service (these close off the water supply if a leak is detected). With smart technology, you can even get notifications straight to your phone when a problem arises.
- Talking of technology, you may want to set up a smart thermostat so that you can put the heating on whenever temperatures drop below a certain level (as mentioned earlier, trace heating is often the better option).
- Also, you can install cameras in your vacation property to keep an eye on issues. If something happens, you can at least deal with it immediately rather than weeks or months later.
If the worst happens, contact a reliable water damage carpet cleaning service in Melbourne. With the right service, you’ll have your home back to normal in no time even after burst pipes. With the tips above, however, the chances of avoiding this problem are much higher. Good luck!
