Alton Water Works turns its seasonal lines off around October 15 and back on around April 15. That handles the town’s pipe. It does nothing about the water sitting in your camp’s traps, toilets, water heater and low runs — which is the part we come to drain.
The town’s water system goes back a ways. Alton bought it in 1921, back when it was still pumping straight out of Winnipesaukee. Now it’s groundwater from town wells — one beside the fire station on Route 140, one behind Levey Park off Route 11, the newest at Jones Field — serving roughly seven hundred homes and businesses around the village and the Bay. A share of those are seasonal services, billed flat for the season and switched on and off with the weather.
Nice arrangement. Until somebody mistakes the town’s shutoff for a winterization. It isn’t one. Closing a seasonal main stops new water coming in; the water already in the house stays exactly where it is — under every sink, in every toilet tank, in the heater, in any pipe that sags an inch in the middle of a run. That’s where the January splits come from.
And the Bay is full of houses like that. The Christian Conference Center alone has more than a hundred private cottages on grounds that have been in use since 1863, and plenty of the cottages around the water were built for summer and nothing else. Small, close together, plumbing run wherever it fit. We like them fine. They just don’t forgive a missed trap.
When Alton’s seasonal lines go off in mid-October, treat it as the reminder to book your closing — not as a sign it’s been done.
On a seasonal town service, our part starts after the water stops coming in. We open the system up, drain the water heater, and blow every line out with compressed air at low pressure so the horizontal runs actually empty. Each trap gets non-toxic RV antifreeze. Toilets get emptied and treated, tank and bowl. Then the things people forget — the outdoor shower, the hose bib down by the dock, the dishwasher pump, the ice maker line.
Up the hill on a private well it’s a longer list: pump off, pressure tank drained, the line relieved. Same idea, though. Nothing left standing where it can freeze.
Spring is the other half, and it’s where the surprises live. The town putting water back in the street in April doesn’t mean your camp is ready to take it. A valve left open in the fall, a fitting that cracked anyway, a supply line under a sink — turn it all on blind and you find out on the floor. We open the house slowly, one area at a time, and watch for drips before we leave. You get a written note of what was done, both trips.
Closing a one-bathroom Alton camp is $400. Two or more bathrooms starts at $1,000, and a bigger lake house with a boathouse, filters, a softener and irrigation is quoted once we’ve walked it. Spring opening is priced below the closing. Anything the Water Works charges for an off-schedule turn-on is theirs, separate from ours.
No. The town’s shutoff stops new water coming into the house. Everything already inside — traps, toilets, the water heater, any low spot in the pipe — is still full, and that standing water is what freezes and splits. Draining and blowing out the lines is a separate job, and it falls to the owner.
The Water Works gives approximate dates: off around October 15, on around April 15, weather permitting. If you need your service turned on or off outside that schedule, that’s arranged with the Water Works directly and they charge extra for it. Call their office to confirm the dates in a given year.
Small doesn’t mean simple. A one-bath cottage still has a water heater, a toilet, a couple of traps and usually an outdoor shower or a hose bib. Any of those can crack. A one-bathroom closing is $400, which is a lot less than a new ceiling and floor in April.
For a place you use on winter weekends, maybe. But a heated empty cottage is only as safe as the power and the furnace, and most policies expect 55°F or more, or the water off and drained, while a home sits vacant. If you go with heat, add a low-temperature alarm that somebody actually answers.
Mostly things that froze in the fall without anyone noticing. A valve left open, a cracked fitting, a supply line under a sink. When the water comes back on they show up as a puddle. Opening the house slowly, one area at a time, catches them while they’re still a drip instead of a ceiling.
Tell us what’s happening and we’ll give you a straight answer — what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there.
Describe what’s happening and where the property is. We’ll come back with a straight answer on what it likely is, what it should cost, and when we can be there. If it’s an emergency, say so in the first line.
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