A proper shutdown takes about ninety unhurried minutes and it’s not complicated — it’s just long. Almost every failure we see is not a hard step done wrong; it’s an easy step skipped because nobody wrote it down. So here’s the whole thing, in order.
Two things make the difference between a shutdown that works and one that mostly works. First, a written fixture list for your specific building — every place water lives, including the ones nobody uses. Second, enough time. A rushed shutdown on the last Sunday of October, in the dark, with the car packed, is where the softener gets forgotten.
The winterization planner builds that fixture list for you and prints it.
On a drilled well — which is what most of this region has — switch off the well pump breaker at the panel. Then open a faucet to relieve pressure and drain the pressure tank completely through its drain valve. A pressure tank holds several gallons and it’s a steel or composite vessel sitting in an unheated building; it will crack. Relieve the pump line as well so nothing is standing between the well and the tank.
On town water, close the main service valve where the line enters the building and open a faucet to relieve pressure. For a fully vacant winter, having the curb stop at the street closed too is worth asking about.
On a lake-draw system, shut off and unplug the jet pump, drain the pump housing, and pull the foot valve and intake line completely out of the water. A line left in the lake doesn’t just freeze — when the ice sheet moves, and it does, it drags and tears whatever is frozen into it.
Shut off its power or fuel first — breaker for electric, gas valve for propane or natural gas, burner switch for oil. Then attach a hose to the drain valve and empty it completely. A forty-gallon tank of water in an unheated building is exactly what you don’t want.
This is the step that separates a real winterization from a hopeful one. Draining by gravity leaves water standing in every horizontal run, and a horizontal run is precisely where a pipe splits. Compressed air at low, controlled pressure — not shop-compressor-wide-open — introduced at the system and worked branch by branch, nearest fixture outward, until each one blows dry air.
Too much pressure damages fixtures, valve cartridges, and older fittings. Too little leaves water behind. This is the step most worth having done by someone who does it fifty times a season.
Every faucet, both handles. Both shower valves. Leave them open all winter so no pressure can build anywhere in the system if a little water is left somewhere.
Every P-trap in the building holds water by design — that’s what keeps sewer gas out. Pour non-toxic RV antifreeze (propylene glycol, the pink stuff, safe for potable systems) into every sink, tub, shower, and floor drain until you see it in the trap.
Toilets get more attention: flush, then sponge the tank and the bowl as dry as you can, then add antifreeze to both. A toilet tank is porcelain with a full reservoir of water in it, and a cracked tank is a fixture replacement.
This is where do-it-yourself shutdowns fail, essentially every time. None of these drain when you open the faucets:
This sounds like paperwork and it isn’t. Record what was drained, what was left charged, where antifreeze went, and where the main shut-off is. Leave a copy at the house and keep one on your phone.
Seasonal houses get opened by different people — a caretaker, a contractor, a sibling, a new owner. The single most expensive spring mistake in this region is somebody turning the water on fast in a building whose state they don’t know. A one-page record prevents it.
Legitimate choice, particularly if you visit in winter. But understand what you’re relying on: your power staying up and your heating system not failing, for five months, unattended. The Lakes Region loses power for days at a time. And most homeowner policies require a minimum interior temperature — commonly 55°F — or a shut-off water supply in a vacant home, so a furnace failure can become both a burst pipe and a coverage argument.
If you leave heat on, spend the forty dollars on a low-temperature alarm. Every burst-pipe call we take from a heated-but-empty house started as a heat failure nobody knew about.
Be finished by the end of October. First hard freeze here can arrive in early November. If you’re on a private road — the Tuftonboro drives off Route 109, the long Moultonborough approaches, the Newfound shore roads — go earlier, because access gets genuinely difficult once the roads soften or the snow starts. If you’re booking someone, book in September. The entire region needs the same four weeks and the calendar runs out every year.
It’s done, but it uses a great deal of product, it has to be flushed thoroughly in spring before anyone drinks the water, and a properly blown-out line doesn’t need it. Antifreeze belongs in the traps and toilets, where you can’t remove the water any other way.
Low and controlled — well below household supply pressure, not a shop compressor opened up. Too much pressure damages valve cartridges, fixture internals, and older fittings, and you find out about it in the spring. This is the step where doing it wrong costs more than having it done.
Generally no — a septic system doesn’t freeze from disuse the way plumbing does. What’s worth knowing is when it was last pumped, because a tank that’s due will announce itself on opening weekend when the house goes from zero to eight people.
Typically $175–$450 in this region, depending on the number of fixtures, whether it’s a well or town supply, and the extras — filters, softener, irrigation, boathouse. Most owners book the shutdown and the following spring’s startup together. See the full cost benchmarks.
Tell us where the place is and what’s in it. The fall calendar fills from Wolfeboro and Tuftonboro first, every single year.
Tell us where the place is and roughly what’s in it — wells, filters, outdoor showers, irrigation — and we’ll get you on the fall calendar.
We reply to every request within 2 business hours.
