Vacation Plumbing Checklist: 4 Must Do’s!

Plumbing Checklist Before Leaving For Vacation

Are you preparing to leave your home for a long vacation? Sure you are, especially since the last year of this unexpected and unprecedented time of the Coronavirus.

So now you took the leap and have decided to vacation again. Are you wondering what you need to do with the plumbing in your home before you leave for an extended amount of time?

As a homeowner, you have several obligations that help you to keep your home in tip-top shape. It can be a pain to remember everything that you need to do when it comes time to close up the house for vacation.

Refer to this vacation plumbing checklist before leaving to make sure that you aren’t forgetting to do anything important.

1. Turn Off Your Water Supply

When you are leaving for a long period of time, you might consider completely turning off the water supply to your home. Once it’s turned off, you should run all of the faucets to make sure there is no water in the pipes. You want to do this so that you don’t have a random leak while you are away.

If you have someone coming to check on the house while you are gone, you can show them how to turn the water supply back on to check that no issues have occurred.

2. Clean Out the Garbage Disposal

If you leave any food or food residue in the garbage disposal when you leave for vacation, you will come home to an unpleasant odor and a nasty mess to clean up. Make sure you clean your garbage disposal before you leave to prevent all of this from happening.

3. Drain Appliances That Use Water

There are several appliances that might use water throughout the home. It would be in your best interest to go through and drain the water from your ice maker or washer so that you don’t come home to any leaks or mildew from leftover water.

If your vacation is going to last for more than a few days, you should switch your water heater over to vacation mode. If your water heater doesn’t have a vacation mode, you may have to turn it off until you come home. This will help to lower utility costs and make sure that it isn’t running while you are away.

4. Check for Potential Problems

Check for possible leaks in your water heater and exposed pipes before leaving for vacation. It’s better to be prepared for the worst than to be completely caught off guard when it comes to possible leaks and other water issues.

When in doubt, hire a plumbing professional to come in to check for any potential problems that may occur while you are away on your vacation.