It is the middle of August, the weather is good, and nobody wants to think about closing the place up. That is exactly why this is worth writing now.
The work that prevents a burst pipe in a seasonal property is a short list and it is not expensive. What makes it expensive is booking it in the second week of October alongside everybody else, when the plumbers in Collingwood and along the escarpment are already booked and the first hard night is a fortnight out.
The list
- Water off at the main, system drained, valves left open. This is the item that removes the risk rather than managing it. Traps get plumbing antifreeze, not water.
- Outside taps isolated and drained from inside. The interior valve, not just the outside handle.
- Crawl space vents closed. One left open in November is the commonest single cause we find behind a burst line.
- A low-temperature alarm on a path that survives a power cut. Cellular or battery-backed. A smart thermostat reports nothing when the power is out, and the power being out is the failure that matters.
- Somebody in the building at a stated interval, written down. Many policies on seasonal or unoccupied buildings make freeze coverage conditional on exactly this, and the wording is worth reading in August rather than in February.
- A five-minute appliance check while you are there. Under the sink at the back corners, behind the washing machine at the hose crimps, and the floor around the water heater.
That is the whole list. An afternoon in September, or a very large invoice in March.
Why the March invoice is so large
Because it is not the failure that costs the money. It is the discovery date.
A supply line at mains pressure does not stop. Found in six hours it is extraction and drying. Found in three weeks it is removal, remediation and a rebuild, and it is the identical fitting either way. In Stayner and the other year-round towns that gap barely exists, because somebody is standing there. On the escarpment and along the shore it is the normal case.
The full version of this, including where the failures actually occur in a building, is in shutting a seasonal property down against frozen pipes.
One thing to do in October rather than August
Check the property after the first thaw following the first hard cold spell — not during the cold.
A pipe usually splits while the ice plug is still in place, and nothing escapes until it melts. So a building inspected on the coldest morning can look perfect and still be holding a split line. The flood does not arrive on the coldest night explains the mechanism, and it is the reason the timing of the check matters as much as the check.
If you are closing a shoreline property rather than a chalet, the Wasaga Beach page covers the version of this that involves a high water table as well as a cold one.