There’s a particular cruelty to home emergencies. They almost never happen while you’re standing right there to catch them…
They wait until you’ve locked the door, boarded the plane, and put your phone on airplane mode for a long-awaited week at the lake or down south.
The classic version is the burst supply line that floods a Minnesota home for six days while the family is on vacation, turning a relaxing trip into a homecoming nightmare. The good news is that the vast majority of these scenarios are preventable with about thirty minutes of prep before you leave.
Here’s your pre-vacation walkthrough.
The five-minute job that prevents the worst-case scenario
If you do nothing else on this list, do this one.
Find your home’s main water shut-off valve and turn it off before you leave for any trip longer than a day or two. With the water to the house shut off, even a failed supply line or a burst pipe has nothing to push through it. No water flowing means no flood, full stop. The valve is usually in the basement near where the main line enters the house, often near the water meter.
If you’d rather not shut off the whole house (say you’ve got someone stopping by to water plants), at least shut off the valves to your washing machine, which is the single most common source of vacation water damage.
Give your water heater a break
Most water heaters have a “vacation” mode, often marked on the dial. Switching it on keeps the tank from heating water around the clock while nobody’s home to use it. It saves energy and gives the unit a rest. If yours doesn’t have a vacation setting, simply turning the temperature down does the same job. Our team can show you where the setting is if you’ve never used it.
Don’t shut the AC off completely
It’s tempting to switch everything off to save money, but in a humid Minnesota summer, that’s a mistake. A house sealed up with no air conditioning for a week can build up enough heat and humidity to encourage mold growth and stress wood floors and furniture.
Instead of turning the AC off, set the thermostat up to around 80 degrees. It’ll run far less often while you’re gone but still keep humidity in check. A smart thermostat makes this even easier, letting you adjust from your phone and cool the house back down before you walk in the door.
A few last-minute checks
Walk the house before you head out. Clear any slow drains so they don’t back up while you’re away. Check under sinks for the early signs of a leak. If you have a sump pump, pour a bucket of water in the pit to confirm it kicks on, since summer storms don’t pause for your vacation.
A short walkthrough now is the difference between coming home to your home exactly as you left it and coming home to a very expensive surprise. If you’d like a professional once-over before a big trip, call us at (952) 208-5459 or schedule online. Travel easy.
