Winterizing a Home and Liability

Maine Doug_52

here is what I can see from anywhere I can connect to the net. The 4th camera is not installed yet. This is a night shot but the boiler room lights are on. It caught me taking the trash out.

GW

Winterizing a Home and Liability

Has anyone thought through the pros and cons of winterizing a home? We're doing one today and many thoughts came into my mind. Does anyone have any procedures? Any war stories? Thanks for any help.

Gary Wilson, Owner
Wilson Services, Inc.
Easthampton, MA
413-527-3317
gary@wilsonph.com
www.wilsonph.com

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ScottMP

Gary

We do it alot. We preasurize the main with a compressor. One with volume. We blow out all water piping a couple of times, then pull all valves, under the cabinets, everything. Antifreeze the W.C., pour it down the over flow untill you see it in the bowl. All traps. You know this stuff I don't need to tell you

For the boiler I like full anti-freeze, sometime even drain after.

If this house has never been winterized then I make sure the customer knows there is NO Promise about a small trap of water somewhere.

Scott

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Darrell

I winterize about fifty homes a year...most of them are repeats. Here is what I do.

I have a sump pump and a five gallon bucket, I pump RV antifreeze through the entire domestic system. All of the valves stay wet that way and there is no trapped water to worry about. In the spring they turn the water on and flush it out. I bypass and drain the water heater.

I antifreeze the boiler and leave heat on in most of the houses...it is too hard on a house to go completely cold...it's 29 below right now.

I also do the yearly Heating Crisis Prevention Check at this time.

I install a freeze alarm that calls me if it gets below 50 degrees in the house. The freeze alarm costs me about 150.00 butis theirs to keep and we'll use it again next year.

I keep a set of keys so that I can access the house if I need to.

The winterization is billed by the hour and by the gallon. Any modifications I need to make, such as a bypass on the water heater are billed T+M. The Freeze Alarm is billed at 225.00 and if I get called it is a callout service call. I'll usually make a point to stop in a couple of times through the winter and make sure the boiler has enough pressure and generally check things out. I might bill for that as well, but not ususally.

Sounds like a lot of money and bother. But, they are lining up to have me provide this service, and these are good paying repeat customers. The winterization gets done my way or I don't do it. The customers understand that I cannot assume any liability for their homes when they are vacant, this service is viewed as cheap insurance.

Some of the customers have my son do some things for them through the winter, like water the plants, shovel the deck, or change the lights around. He bills for that on his own.

I actually caught some burglars this way. I was picking up the boys at school and had gotten a call from the Alarm earlier, so we stopped by, expecting to have to walk in an unplowed driveway. The drive was plowed and a U-Haul was backed up to the door! I pulled out and called the owner in California. She flipped on her computer TV and saw them moving her out! I called the troopers and they made them put everything back in the home before they cuffed them and hauled them away! The Freeze Alarm is silent, just an autodialer, and was under the desk out of the way. The cold air with the door open tripped it!r

Al Letellier_9

winterizing

Don't forget the dishwasher and washing machine valves and drains. I see these every year with the insuranc work I do. Also the icemaker........

Dave Yates (GrandPAH)_1

here's our system

Try this on for size: http://www.contractormag.com/articles/column.cfm?columnid=426

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Maine Doug_52

Boiler room watching

Speaking of watching what is going on in the house, here is what I see when I travel. Can view and control. 4th camera is not installed yet.

kevin coppinger_4

so that is...

what the twins look like....kpc

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Christian Egli_2

What a crisis intervention

Good catch Darrell, this automatic driveway melt would be a bust if it didn't come at the cost of the entire household.

-29F, do the cops still need to say "freeze you're under arrest"?