And it keeps the house from turning into an oven, which can impact wood doors, cabinets and flooring. "You want to keep the air circulating so it doesn't have time to condensate," Spaulding says. You'll just have to deal with a hot house when you get back.īut don't completely turn off the air conditioner or furnace during your vacation. #FLORIDA VACATION CHECKLIST MANUAL#If you have a manual thermostat, it's still worth turning it up while you're gone to avoid wasting energy. "You can set and hold the temperature at 85 degrees while you're gone in the summer, then the day before you get back, the thermostat will lower the temperature to 72," he explains. If you have a programmable thermostat, Spaulding says, you're golden. #FLORIDA VACATION CHECKLIST PRO#Pro tip: Replace standard rubber washing-machine hoses with hoses made of stainless-steel mesh they’re much stronger and less likely to burst. That’ll prevent flooding should the hoses burst while you’re away. If you don’t want to turn off the water to the whole house, at least close the hot- and cold-water valves on the washing machine hoses. It takes a little bit of time, and it can save thousands of dollars in potential water damage." "There is no downside to turning off the water. "Instead of literally thousands of gallons of water, you might have a 50-gallon leak from the hot-water tank," Spaulding says. If you do spring a leak inside, the line will be under some initial pressure, but it will not continue to spray water. It only takes a little bit of a leak."Ĭlosing the valve on the main supply line cuts off water to the house, but still allows outside sprinklers to work. "I've seen cabinets in kitchens destroyed. "If that water tank leaks, you'd better catch it quickly," he says. In the Houston area, where he lives, for example, hot-water tanks are placed in attics to avoid taking up floor space in living areas. And a major leak could be catastrophic if nobody’s around to deal with it. "If you're going to have a leaky supply line, it's going to happen while you're away," says Fred Spaulding, president of Quality Home Improvements, Inc., in Kingwood, Texas. Turning off the main water supply to your home is the best defense against flooding caused by a burst pipe or other plumbing failure.
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