Closing a Moultonborough 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.
Moultonborough has more shoreline than any other town on Lake Winnipesaukee, and a housing stock to match: substantial second homes strung along Long Island, the Gold Coast, Suissevale, Balmoral, and out toward Center Harbor Neck, plus a genuine island population reachable only by boat. A large portion of these houses are occupied for a fraction of the year and shut down for the rest.
Nearly all of them are on private drilled wells, with a pressure tank and a pump control sitting in a basement or utility room that is the single most freeze-vulnerable spot in the building. Some parts of town fall inside the Lakes Region Water Company franchise, and portions of the town connect to the state Winnipesaukee River Basin sewer system, but the default assumption here is well and septic.
Winterizing a Moultonborough lake house is a bigger job than most owners expect. You’re draining a well system, not just a municipal service — the pressure tank has to come down, the pump line has to be relieved, and the whole distribution system blown out. Add a whole-house filter, a softener, an ice maker, a wet bar, an outdoor shower, a boathouse sink, and irrigation, and you have a dozen separate places water hides. Miss one and you find out in April.
Island properties are their own category. Everything — tools, a new pressure tank, the water heater — goes over by boat, and once ice starts forming in the coves the window closes. Island work gets scheduled early and firmly, and we’d rather tell you honestly in November that we can’t get there than leave you guessing.
If your Moultonborough house has a whole-house filter or a water softener, tell whoever winterizes it. Softener resin tanks and filter housings hold water, crack when they freeze, and are the single most commonly missed item on a do-it-yourself shutdown.
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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