When you go away in travel do you shut the water off?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No reason to shut water off in DC - only in places where it gets so cold all pipes could freeze.

When I lived alone and travelled for work 2-3 weeks at a time, I would shut off the gas line to the house even though I had to relight the pilot on my stove when I returned. Probably silly, but it made me feel better.

Yes I turn the heat down if I'll be gone more than 36-48 hours, probably to 60-65. Come home, drop bags and turn on heat, go out to dinner or to the grocery store.

I completely disagree about no reason to shut off in DC!! We went to NYC for the weekend one September. One of our toilets started leaking while we were away. Our housekeeper came on Saturdays at the time and noticed the leak. The shutoff to the toilet was old and would't turn, so she called us to find out where the main was. Had she not been there, our basement would have been flooded.

When our plumber came to fix it, he advised us to always turn off the water. You never know when a pipe or toilet will have an issue and water is destructive. We now turn it off summer or winter.

Bingo! All it takes is one leak that goes on for a week unnoticed to debunk the notion that frozen pipes are the only worry.

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12/16/2013 14:28

Subject: When you go away in travel do you shut the water off?

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, pp, you keep your house at 72???

I don't think people are saying they go away for weeks and keep the house at 72 while they are gone. I think they re saying more like they turn the heat to 62 and the ac to 77.

We never turned the water off in my old house growing up but it sounds like a Good idea. I wonder why we didn't ? We had radiator heat, does that need water to work? We did leave several taps dripping.

You are the second person here that's mentioned this, I haven't heard of this before, why is this done?

People do this so that the water doesn't freeze in the pipes. When we shut off the water, we open the faucets a bit so that whatever is in the lines will drain. However, in DC, it is true that frozen pipes are the least of your worries. Leaks and burst pipes are by far more likely.