Closing a Holderness camp or lake house for the winter, or opening it back up in the spring — done methodically, documented in writing, so nothing gets missed and nothing splits in February.
Holderness is Squam Lake country — the quieter, more private big lake, with a shoreline of family compounds and second homes reached by long wooded drives off Route 113 and Shepard Hill Road, plus genuine island and boat-access properties out on the water. Little Squam and the Squam River channel through the village add another cluster of waterfront buildings.
These are, on the whole, substantial buildings on private drilled wells, and many of them are seasonal or lightly used in winter. That combination — big house, complex plumbing, empty for months, own water system — is the highest-stakes winterization profile in the region. There’s often a well pump, a pressure tank, a filtration setup, three or four bathrooms, a laundry, a kitchen with an ice maker and a pot filler, an outdoor shower, a boathouse, and irrigation. Every one of those has to be handled deliberately.
Access shapes the work here as much as the plumbing does. Squam’s shoreline is deliberately undeveloped-looking, driveways are long and narrow, and some properties are only reachable by water. Getting a new water heater or pressure tank into a house like that is a logistics problem before it’s a plumbing problem, and we’d rather plan it properly with you than show up and improvise.
The village end of Holderness has a small year-round core — the school, the church, houses along the river — with the everyday plumbing work any town has.
On a large Squam-area house, get the winterization documented — a written list of what was drained, what was left charged, and where the antifreeze went. When a different person opens the house in May, that document is what prevents a very expensive mistake.
Shutting down a seasonal house properly is not turning off a valve and opening the faucets. On a well system the pump is shut down, the pressure tank drained, the pump line relieved, and the whole distribution system blown out with compressed air at low, controlled pressure — because water left standing in a horizontal run is exactly where a pipe splits. Water heaters are drained. Every trap gets non-toxic RV antifreeze: sinks, tubs, showers, floor drains, and each toilet, with the tank and bowl emptied and treated.
Then the list nobody remembers. Whole-house filters and water softener tanks hold water and crack. Ice makers have a supply line and a reservoir. Dishwashers and washing machines hold water in the pump housing. Outdoor showers, dock hose bibs, boathouse sinks, wet bars, and irrigation zones all need to be drained separately. On a lake-draw system the foot valve and line have to come out of the water before ice-in.
We finish with a written record of what was drained, what was left charged, and where antifreeze went — so whoever opens the house in the spring, including a different person entirely, knows exactly what they’re walking into.
A standard Lakes Region camp winterization typically runs $175–$450 depending on the number of fixtures, whether it’s a well or town supply, and the extras (filters, softener, irrigation, boathouse). Spring startup runs similar. Booking both together is the way most owners do it.
Aim to be done by the end of October. The first hard freeze in the Lakes Region can arrive in early November and does not wait for your schedule. Waterfront and private-road properties should book earlier still, because access gets harder once the roads soften or the snow starts.
You can, and for a house you visit in winter it is often the better choice — but it is only as reliable as your power and your furnace. Most homeowner policies require a minimum interior temperature, commonly 55°F, or a shut-off water supply in a vacant home. If you leave heat on, add a low-temperature alarm so a heat failure does not become a burst pipe you find in April.
Water softeners and whole-house filter housings, ice maker lines, dishwasher and washing machine pump housings, and outdoor showers or dock hose bibs. All of them hold water, all of them crack, and none of them drain when you open the faucets. A written fixture list is the only reliable fix.
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