Leaving house unattended for all of July: your advice?

In My Humble Opinion
21

There’s been a lot of talk here about how to confuse burglars who might be casing the place.
(ideas like switching light on and off, moving the car, opening drapes on different days, etc).

But there’s a more important way to do this: keep the yard clean and neat. A sloppy, unmaintained exterior makes the house look unoccupied.

If a burglar is looking to break in, a real pro will case the house for a couple days, and may notice (and be deterred by )the varying routine of lights and drapes. But the average punk burglar will just look around for 5 minutes and break in through a window in the back.
And one way he will choose your house to break into instead of someone else’s is that your yard looks messy and unoccupied, so he’ll think the house may be unoccupied, too.

Having a nephew stay there and order pizza and turn on the lights one night a week is nice.
But it’s more important to ask him to pick up random scraps of paper that the wind blew up against the bushes, and sweep dirt off the sidewalk and driveway. Same with the car–you can leave it parked outside, but don’t let dust accumulate on the windshield, or dirt accumulate next to the tires, making it obvious that nobody has driven it.

22

Excellent advice. As I posted in another thread, this happened to me as well.

The family were all packed in the running vehicle as I did a last-minute dash to shut off the main water valve. Sure enough, when I did so it began dripping immediately.

Not a great way to start a vacation.
mmm

23

Please update your alarm company with the names and contact phone numbers of neighbors authorized to be in your home. And be sure those neighbors not only have the code for your alarm system but also come over and practice entering the code to arm and disarm the system. You don’t want the police arresting your neighbors if they accidentally set off the alarm while bringing in your mail.

24

Something I do just for a week… and it may not be applicable here… is that I actually park my car in the driveway, closer to the street than normal. Yes it will be obvious if the car doesn’t move, but nobody will be able to roll a van up to the side of the house and quickly load it up with my stuff.

25

How hard is it to fiddle with your water heater?

Our water heater has a thermostat for temperature control. If we dial it low enough it goes to “vacation” mode, which maintains some minimum temperature (I guess to keep the tank from freezing if it’s in a really cold environment). If you dial it even further it goes into “pilot” mode, where it keeps the pilot light lit, but never fires the main burner. This is the mode we put it into for extended absences. It saves the hassle of re-lighting the pilot; when we come home, we just turn the thermostat back up to its original setting, and we’re back in business.

We also turn off the main water valve for the whole house and bleed off system pressure at the kitchen sink (just leave the faucet open).

The process on returning home isn’t terribly complicated:

#1: turn off kitchen sink faucet.
#2: turn on main water valve.
#3: turn thermostat up on water heater.
#4: turn kitchen sink hot water on; let it flow for several minutes.

Why #4? Because when system pressure is relieved, gases dissolved in the water come out of solution during your absence, mostly accumulating at the top of the water heater. you need to get these gases out of the pipes to avoid water hammer effects. Assuming you have a dishwasher, your kitchen sink piping will have been fitted with a water-hammer arresting device, so bleeding out these gases there will be less harsh than it would be if you did it at, say, the bathroom sink. Just run hot water there untl the faucet stops farting.

If you’re concerned about your wife’s ability to handle all of this, write down detailed instructions, and walk her through the process. I mean literally take her to the main valve and water heater thermostat, and have her operate them so she understands what she’s looking for. This can also be useful in the future if a problem arises with your home’s plumbing while you aren’t around; your wife will have a better idea of how to shut things down in your absence.

26

[quote=“commasense, post:1, topic:835705”]

[li]Give a neighbor a spare key and ask them to pick up any flyers, papers, etc. that are left on the driveway, stoop, or mailbox. They’ll also have our phone numbers to call in case anything happens.[/li][/quote]

Have the neighbor move the car you’re leaving behind from time to time.

Have the neighbor make changes in drapes/blinds a couple times over that interval.

If you’re using light timers the neighbor can also change those a few times.

Have someone mow the lawn as needed when you’re gone.

27

When my gf’s father was still alive, we had her parents live in our house when we vacationed. My MIL treated this as her vacation, and enjoyed seeing the horses, etc. Her dad loved to do “projects”, so one time we returned from a vacation to a finished drop-ceiling in our basement. He also would change the oil in all the mowers/tractor/etc.

This arrangement left their home empty for two weeks, but my MIL’s sisters live next door to them, so they’d watch over the empty house.

28

Like others, I’d recommend turning off the water and lowering the water heater to pilot. Teach your wife how it works, and let her do it a couple of times. If you both have cellphones, you can also walk her through the turn on process live, if need be.

The potential damage from a vacation time leak is off the charts. A leak that runs for 3 straight weeks is going to do an incredible amount of damage compared to one that runs for a couple of hours.

29

Seems like most precautions fall into 3 categories:
-protecting the integrity of the structure, as in turning off the water;
-saving $, as in adjusting the thermostat/water heater;
-preventing theft - light timers, neighbor visits, etc.

I’m curious as to the extent to which people assess their individual exposure when deciding what steps to take? For example, are home break-ins common in your neighborhood? In my neighborhood, it is more common for a burglar to enter an unlocked car/home when the owner is home - maybe in the backyard or something - crimes of convenience, than to forcibly break in. So I don’t feel the need to take more than minimal steps to further reduce a very small threat.

And none of these are fool-proof. Some folk don’t want to stop their mail, b/c their mail carrier might be a thief. But your trusted relative/friend/neighbor might have a lapse in judgment - maybe their teen knows they have a key to your house, and lets a friend know. So invest in “smart” home technology - which turns out to be hackable…

For me, buying a home in a reasonably safe neighborhood and installing good locks is good enough to forestall the vast majority of theft.

Turning off the water is probably the one where the cost/benefit potential is the highest. We had a new main shut-off installed in the past 5 years. Should probably turn that and the water heater off more often. Of course, it is rare that we are gone for even as long as a week. So what is the minimum absence? In another thread, I recall someone saying they turned their water off every time they left their house! Everyone knows about that one family member, neighbor, or friend of a friend who had catastrophic water damage while on vacation. But how common IS it actually? Hell, we never had pipes burst, but we DID have a house struck by lightning. Fortunately, we were not on vacation, and it happened in the a.m. as we were getting ready for work. But based on my personal experience, lightning strikes occur more often than well maintained pipes burst - and how ya gonna protect against THAT?!

I’m about as un-handy as the next guy, but I’ve never found water heaters all that complicated. We use a family vacation home, and there are clear, written, step-by-step instructions as to what valves to turn and what switches to switch to turn on the pump, water heater, etc. But that is a place that can go weeks/months without being used. Besides the risk of damage, fuel costs add up.

30

Take a bottle of water, drink half, then lay it on its side in the freezer to freeze. When you leave, stand the bottle upright.

31

I walk daily in my neighbourhood, and I agree 100% with this advice. In winter, if you haven’t shovelled your walk in days and the mail is piling up, I would go burgle your house first if I was inclined that way. In summer, if your yard isn’t mowed, the weeds are out of control, and the mail is piling up, I would go burgle your house first.

Something I don’t think anyone has mentioned yet is that your house insurance may require someone to come look after your house every couple of days. I would check with my insurance company before leaving the house vacant for an extended period.

32

Thanks, all for the suggestions. Here are some responses, in no particular order.

We have a lawn service that will be here at least twice while we are away.

No friends/relatives able to house sit or look in on a regular basis. I’ve already exchanged phone numbers with the neighbor on one side, and will get her a key. Maybe I’ll do the same with the one on the other side, too. I don’t know either well enough to ask them to do more than just keep an eye on things generally, and remove flyers, etc. I wouldn’t ask them to move the car, or anything like that. I’ll think about showing them the alarm system.

I will discuss the water heater/main valve issues with my wife, but I think it would stress her out too much. I know these are simple things, but she doesn’t like dealing with “technical” things like this, and I don’t think the risk is worth stressing her over it.

I have scheduled stopping the mail and the paper. I hadn’t thought of the corrupt carrier possibilities, but we’ve done it before and had no problems.

I hadn’t considered the possibility of mold from shutting off the AC completely. (We’ve only lived in the deep south for a year.) Our normal summer settings are 77 daytime, 83 night for the first floor and basement, and 77 day and 72 night for upstairs. (I work from home and have an office upstairs.) I guess I’ll just set all of them to hold at about 80 all the time while we’re away.

The light timers, with random feature, arrive today. I’ll put them on table lamps in the living room and dining room, which we almost never use. Even though they won’t mimic our real-life activity, they’ll create an impression of some activity.

I was looking into cameras, but the Wyze mentioned above apparently has serious security problems: the app requires access to your social media accounts(!), there’s no assurance that the video is stored securely, the servers are in China, etc. Most of the other inexpensive ones on Amazon have similar problems, or have no real reviews. I may get one offered by my security company, but they’re $100 each and require a $5/month fee to store the video. Not impossible, and I may only use it for extended trips. But there’s not much time to order it, set it up, make sure it works, before we leave.

33

Ordered two of the $100 cameras, 2-day shipping.

34

We have a 40-gallon, gas-fired heater. How long should I expect it to get to full heat after being on the pilot setting for, say, two weeks?

Why bleed off pressure in the first place? What happens if I just shut off the main valve and show my wife how to turn it back on, and don’t expect her to do #1-4?

35

Written instructions, together with a hands-on, on-location rehearsal, might go a long way toward alleviating her concerns. You can even put signs directly on the valve and thermostat with arrows and tips, e.g. “turn this yellow valve handle vertical when you get home, and horizontal when you leave,” “turn this thermostat knob to ‘B’ when you get home, and ‘pilot’ when you leave.” Explain to her (verbally and in your written instructions) that when she turns the thermostat up after her arrival, the main burner will probably light, and she shouldn’t be alarmed by the noise the burner makes; also explain to her that when she turns the main water valve on, she’ll probably hear water flowing briefly as the plumbing system gets pressurized again. If she’s still too weirded out by it all, well, at least you tried.

However, even if you don’t do this for vacations, you should teach your wife how to do this stuff so she’ll know how to shut these things off if there’s a problem when you’re not around. You don’t want to come back from a visit to Home Depot and discover that the house has been flooding for an hour simply because your wife had no idea how to shut the water supply off.

I assume you’ve had at least one occasion where you’ve run out of hot water before, and have had to wait for it to heat up again before someone else can shower. This is pretty close to what you’re dealing with when you come home from a trip, i.e. starting with a tank of cold water. My experience after coming home from trips and firing up the water heater is that it’s less than an hour before we can shower.

I’ll admit that this may be overkill on my part, but my concern is about developing a vacuum in the piping system as the water in the water heater tank cools and contracts slightly; if this were to happen, it could slightly buckle part of the tank, which could cause problems down the road. We’re not talking about much: 40 gallons of water cooled from 120F to 70F becomes 39.7 gallons. Moreover, this could be offset, partially or completely, by the dissolution of dissolved gases, provided that this dissolution happen on a timescale commensurate with the cooldown. But not knowing whether that’s the case, I find it prudent to just relieve system pressure altogether while we’re on an extended absence.

Some homes are equipped with expansion tanks, which make that a non-issue. OTOH, with the main supply shut off, expansion tanks will maintain system pressure in the event that a leak does develop, ensuring that at least a few gallons of water (however much is in the expanion tank) get leaked before system pressure falls to ~0. So even if you do have an expansion tank, IMHO it’s still a good idea to bleed your plumbing system pressure down before you leave.

36

The water heater has an expansion tank.

So here’s another question regarding the water heater: how much money would we save by turning it down? We pay $0.55 per therm. It’s relatively new (~2-3 years), so fairly efficient and well-insulated.

Please check my math:

The energy guide label on the tank says it should use an average of 188 therms per year. Dividing that by 12=15.67, and multiplying that by 0.55=$8.62 worth of gas in an average month. Our savings would be less than that, since we’ll actually use almost no water in that month (just the two days that my wife will be back for), and with only two of us in the household, our actual annual use is probably lower than that starting figure anyway. So maybe we’d save $7.00, at most?

Does that sound right?

37

I did this for 3 weeks in Atlanta (80 degree setting). When I got back I had yellow mold on my countertops, black mold on the walls, and red mold in the toilet. Wasn’t worth the $25 of electricity that I probably saved.

38

Wow! I had no idea.

39

I guess it depends on just how hot your pilot light burns . I have noticed with mine (propane), it will actually heat the water to very good hot shower temperature if given enough time, meaning several days.

Also consider if you have the water heater heating water, even by pilot light, do you want to close the main?

40

Wow what did people do before central a/c was standard down there?