Long trip preparation at home

I'm not full timing, but I want to go on an extended trip 3-5 months long and the house will be vacant.  I've read some of the full time articles, which have answered a lot of questions, but things are different if returning back home.

Some of the things I need to arrange are kind of obvious, mail pickup, lawn care, bill payments, etc. What I want to know are the oh-by-the-ways that aren't so obvious.  Is there a checklist or other reference that anyone recommends to use?

I don't want several weeks into the trip something comes up that requires an early return or complicated long distance solutions.

I might help to break it up into a few month long trips and return home for one night in between.

For a trip that long you may want to consider asking a friend to do a walk around and walk through every couple weeks. Flush toilets check for leaks, make sure everything is operational. Wouldn't take more than 10 minutes. If you don't have anyone perhaps hire a service, there are many around.


When I had a sticks house and left on a long trip, I'd turn off the hot water heater, close all sink valves and close washer valves.

Shut off water to residence.   

Program your thermostat. 

Ask your Cable company to place your service on vacation hold. 

Purchase a safe with a 1 hour fire rating for valuable papers, passports, etc.

Talk to your insurance agent or company.  Ask if there are any coverage issues when your home is unoccupied.  Make sure they know the home is not vacant (furnishing removed).  Vacant is different from unoccupied and a red flag for insurers. 

If you have a lawn service, ask that they sweep the entry way and remove any advertising flyers that are attached to the door.  Makes the house look lived in.

Use timers on lamps to give your home that lived in look. 

In our area, mail can only be put on hold for a month.  Our close friend and neighbor picks up our mail and checks on the house almost every day. 

Hi MikeyInNY,

I'll throw out some suggestions. Rather than mail pickup you might want to forward your mail to a trusted relative who could forward it on to you. You might use a mail forwarding service that sends mail to you when you want them to. Besides lawncare, I'd have someone I trust, stop in and check your house out a couple of times a month. Security camera to monitor what is going on is also helpful. Some sort of security monitoring system.

I make out a list that shows when all my bills are due. I put on everything that I pay during the year, including taxes, insurance for cars, RV, house and what ever you may have. Some items only come up to pay once a year but I have those on my list as well. I think a lot of people pay bills by electronic means but I simply copy bills and pay them as they come due by mail.

Some people warp the toilet with plastic wrap to keep it from evaporating and allowing sewer gases to enter the house which could be explosive. Some people shut off water, some don't. Setting up a bucket mouse trap if you live in the country can keep mice down in your house.

Vault important papers so someone can't come in and steal your identity, while they take nothing. Take important papers with you that you may need.

Here is a couple of check lists that was put in the library that might help if you haven't seen it already:

http://www.rvforum.net/joomla/index.php/15-checklists/57-closing-up-the-house

http://www.rvforum.net/joomla/index.php/15-checklists/68-pre-trip-checklist

Check other items in Library for ideas as well. Good luck on your trip!

I'd like to echo a few less obvious ones.

Shut the water off.  This is a must!!
Bucket trap for mice.
Fire vault for important papers.

I wish we could do that kind of trip!!

The mail is a big deal. We have someone pick ours up every few days from the locked central mailbox our development uses. They go through it, and call us if something looks important. Things like license registrations and insurance rentals can?t be put off! We do not turn off our water since our kids sometimes stay in the house if they are visiting the University in our town (go Panthers!). My son or DIL walks through the house completely about once a week. They turn on faucets, flush toilets, etc. We have a Ring doorbell that lets us know someone came to the door, and that relieves some stress. I highly recommend Ring or something similar. Lawn care and snow removal are already arranged, and my son or DIL makes tracks in and out of the garage when they come. Our important papers are with us (passports), in a safe at home, or in a safe deposit box at the bank. We can control the thermostat with an app, and we set it to 65. My piano doesn?t like wild temperature swings!

Mikey,
We leave every October and do not go back until late April.  However, we live in a condo and your situation might be different.  One of my neighbors is very nice with friends but can be a beast with those who are not. She is different but very helpful as she is a friend. She keeps an eye on our condo.  We cannot shut the water as the system does not allow for it.  There is no lawn care for us as the condo association takes care of it as well as the snow removal.  We set the temp to 55 degrees and turn off the water heater and other  appliances.  We open the under the sinks doors. A friend picks the mail once a week and mails to us the important stuff.  Five years doing the same routine. NP

One thing not mentioned is to pour a thin layer of olive oil or similar into all toilets and traps. This prevents evaporation and negates proplems with sewer gas.

Ernie

Some people shut off water, some don't.

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We learned this lesson the VERY hard way!  Left S&B in March, got a call in mid-June that water was coming out of our walls.  A laundry room pipe valve started a slow leak about May according to water bill usage.  Our neighbor always has a key when we go traveling so he was the first inside.  I drove home while Jerry talked with insurance people, restoration people, storage people, etc.  Every single room of our one-story home was affected.  The wet carpet was out of the house and gone by the time we got home 2.5 days later.  We were lucky to have a nice motorhome and RV garage in which to live during the four months of demolition, drying out, and reconstruction.  We changed every single water valve in the house and now have a special valve so we can turn off water inside the house but still have the yard watering.  Trust me when I say this is not something I would wish on my worst enemy!

ArdraF

I replaced the water hoses in the laundry closet with ones that supposedly resist leaking or yield to pressure changes.  So far so good.  They are more expensive.

ArdraF said:

We learned this lesson the VERY hard way!  Left S&B in March, got a call in mid-June that water was coming out of our walls.  A laundry room pipe valve started a slow leak about May according to water bill usage.  Our neighbor always has a key when we go traveling so he was the first inside.  I drove home while Jerry talked with insurance people, restoration people, storage people, etc.  Every single room of our one-story home was affected.  The wet carpet was out of the house and gone by the time we got home 2.5 days later.  We were lucky to have a nice motorhome and RV garage in which to live during the four months of demolition, drying out, and reconstruction.  We changed every single water valve in the house and now have a special valve so we can turn off water inside the house but still have the yard watering.  Trust me when I say this is not something I would wish on my worst enemy!

ArdraF 

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Hi Ardra,

You made a believer out of me!!!! I'm so sorry about your water issue and all the damage that happened to such a nice people! I've heard people say that the minerals in the pipes will fall inside the pipes and clog things, but seems like to me you can pop open the faucets strainers and let that stuff pass out of your system. Guess I'd rather pay a plumber to fix things than pay for restoration. I hope that all of your keepsakes were not damaged. I'll shut off water from now on and recommend that others do so.

Add that to the list of things you should do if you are gone any length of time for "long trip preparation!!!

Long before we began RVing, we had a similar problem to Ardras.  The water heater in the home failed.  We got a call from our neighbor telling us water was coming out of the front door.  When we got back, the carpet was toast, drapes were toast and water was wicking up the walls.  Don't recall the extent of damage but it was significant.  Today the water heater is in the garage. 

Thanks for the kind words, CamperAl.  It was about a year of disruption and we still come across unexpected "things" like a leather chair where the leather started cracking about six months after the insurance settled.  We were lucky because it was "clean" water and not yucky river or sewer water!  Amazingly, the only closet that didn't have water on the floor was the one where boxes of family photos are stored so that really was lucky!  We lost a few pieces of furniture but most treasures made it through okay.

As to causes, we live in an area with extremely hard water (900 ppm calcium when 500 ppm is considered hard) and everything corrodes quickly whether hot water heaters (4-5 year replacement is common), pool pumps, yard irrigation valves, or whatever.  We changed to Ball Valves from the kind that have a handle you turn like an outside hose faucet.  When our friends located the leak under the laundry room sink and started to turn off the water, the handle came off in his hand so we changed them all..  Our Hartford adjuster told us water is the single most frequent cause of household insurance claims.

ArdraF

Last winter, I used USPS Premium Mail Service.  It worked great, but can only be used to be sent to a single address.  It's great for snow birds.  Also, USPS Informed Delivery, which is free.

Definitely shut off water.  I even have a wi-fi valve on my main line if I forget. 

Everything on autopay, and electronic billing and statements.  I also enter and reconcile everything in Quicken.
Simplisafe alarm
Fake TV
Nest Thermostats
9 outside cameras, 3 inside ones.  View-able from anywhere.
Several 'smart' light switches, easily programmed or reprogrammed remotely.  Or turned on manually remotely.
A deck box for any packages that may happen to come.  Out of sight when they are in there.
Neighbors that check on things as they drive by, but I assume that they may be gone too.  I hate to bother neighbors.

Then relax...  Check your bank and credit card balances regularly online.

Hello,

So if one turns off the water, then do you shut off your water heater (gas or electric) so it doesn't run? It seems to me that even if you turn down the temperature, the water would slowly evaporate and might cause a fire. Does this cause the tank to deteriorate? Thought it might be a good idea to have someone turn on the water every so often to keep things in the lines from falling in the pipes, while check out the house then turn it back off befor leaving.

Senator, what is fake TV? May I ask what type of security cameras do you have?

Might I suggest that people put pictures and items of value, UP, higher so water can't get them. I would also put pics on electronic media (computer back up disk) so you have treasured pictures you can dupe.

camperAL said:

Hello,

So if one turns off the water, then do you shut off your water heater (gas or electric) so it doesn't run? It seems to me that even if you turn down the temperature, the water would slowly evaporate and might cause a fire. Does this cause the tank to deteriorate? Thought it might be a good idea to have someone turn on the water every so often to keep things in the lines from falling in the pipes, while check out the house then turn it back off befor leaving.

Click to expand...

Water heaters are relatively closed systems where no evaporation occurs even with long idle periods. Evaporation requires moving air to carry away the moisture.

camperAL said:

Hello,

So if one turns off the water, then do you shut off your water heater (gas or electric) so it doesn't run? It seems to me that even if you turn down the temperature, the water would slowly evaporate and might cause a fire. Does this cause the tank to deteriorate? Thought it might be a good idea to have someone turn on the water every so often to keep things in the lines from falling in the pipes, while check out the house then turn it back off before leaving.

Senator, what is fake TV? May I ask what type of security cameras do you have?

Click to expand...

A FakeTV is a LED device that makes it look like a TV is on.  Low wattage.  Google it.  I have the largest one.
https://www.amazon.com/FakeTV-FTV-11-US-Bright-Burglar-Deterrent/dp/B00BTKGHDE

I have a 16 channel Amcrest system, with 11 cameras attached.  I can view them via my phone or laptop.

I put my water heater on pilot when I leave.  It's easy to turn on when I get home and barely uses any gas.  I have put it on OFF once, and it's a pain to light when I get home and want to do other things.  And the thermo-couple could go bad when it's off,  I have had that happen before.

My water is 100% off.  Nothing can fall into a water pipe.

In addition to the great suggestions here, there are an increasing number of relatively inexpensive WiFi based monitors, sensors, and thermostats that you can control and monitor from your phone and receive notifications if something is outside your parameters.

We close off water and gas.

We have cameras.

We have light bulbs that you can control via Wi-Fi so change on and off times.

We also have blinds that are battery driven and go up and down at set times.