Closing a lake house or camp for the winter, and opening it back up in the spring — done methodically and documented in writing. Typically $175–$450 per visit depending on what’s in the building. This is the work we’re built around.
That’s the defining fact about plumbing in the Lakes Region and almost nobody builds a service around it. A camp on Newfound, a second home on Meredith Neck, a family place in Tuftonboro that’s been closed every October since 1961 — the building itself will sit through winter fine. It’s the water system that decides whether you come back in May to a house or to a claim.
Nationally, more than 20,000 frozen-pipe and winter water-damage claims were filed from 2024 through mid-2025, totaling over $628 million paid, with the average claim above $30,000. Almost all of that is preventable in ninety careful minutes.
Shutting down a seasonal house is not turning off a valve and opening the faucets. Here’s the actual sequence:
That last item sounds like paperwork and isn’t. Seasonal houses change hands, get opened by a caretaker or a contractor or a different family member, and the single most expensive spring mistake is somebody turning the water on fast in a house they don’t know the state of.
Opening a house is where you find out whether the shutdown worked, and it should be done slowly with someone standing at the low point of the system listening. Water on fast in a house with one hairline crack gives that crack a few unattended minutes to empty into a finished ceiling. Water on slow gives you time to hear it. Full detail in the spring startup guide.
Be finished by the end of October. The first hard freeze in this region can arrive in early November. Waterfront and private-road properties — Tuftonboro off 109, Moultonborough’s long drives, the Newfound shore roads — should book earlier still, because access gets genuinely difficult once the roads soften or the snow starts, and the entire region needs the same four-week window. Every year the calendar runs out before the phone stops ringing.
Most owners book the shutdown and the following spring’s startup at the same time. It’s cheaper to schedule and it means the same people who closed the house are the ones who open it.
You can, and for a house you actually visit in winter it’s often the better choice. But it’s only as reliable as your power and your furnace, and the Lakes Region loses power for days at a time. 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. Every burst-pipe call we take from a heated-but-empty house started as a heat failure nobody knew about.
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 — the winterization planner builds one for your specific property.
In the traps and toilets, yes — non-toxic RV antifreeze, which is propylene glycol and safe for a potable system. In the supply lines we blow them out with air instead. Filling supply lines with antifreeze is done sometimes, but it uses a lot of product, it has to be flushed thoroughly in spring, and a properly blown-out line doesn’t need it.
We do island and boat-access work on Winnipesaukee and Squam, and it has to be scheduled rather than improvised. Everything goes over by boat, and once ice starts forming in the coves the window closes completely. Island properties get booked first, and we’d rather tell you honestly in November that we can’t get there than leave you guessing.
Tell us where the place is and roughly what’s in it — well or town water, how many baths, filters, outdoor showers, irrigation, boathouse. We’ll quote it and book it.
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.
We reply to every request within 2 business hours.
