Winterized Plumbing

mattbatson

How do you handle this? Do you tell the client you cannot turn on the water....or tell the owner that they will have to re-winterize?
Anyone have any liablility problems with burst pipes?

Teetorbilt

I own a home in a 'moderate' climate (NC) and I just pay the bill to keep it from freezing. Two 100W bulbs in the crawlspace and the thermostat set to 45* has worked for 24 yrs. Average cost:> $27 a month during the winter.

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Mike Finley

I don't really understand your question. I take it you are a tile setter so you need water to do your work. What did you tell the client? If it was me I would talk about this ahead of the job, either you need water available at the job site or you will to make arrangements to bring some in yourself, the former is the normal business arangement the latter is not normal so your client should be under the agreement that there will be extra charges. The alternative is he can get the water turned on and he can get it turned off and winterized again at his expense. Personally I wouldn't be getting involved in re-winterizing his pipes because of the liability issue you mentioned.

#1 Inspector

I am a home inspector and every winter we run into this. Due to libility issues I do not turn anything on or off. (unless it is normal operation like the sink water or the thermostat)
If the home has been winterized I inform my client that I can only do a structural inspection and can not operate any of the plumbing fixtures. The buyer usually wants this inspected and the seller wants to sell the home so he will come (or someone he hires) out and turn everthing on.
Then will return after the inspection to rewinterize the home. For me it does not make a lot of difference because I can discover alot of information without the water being turned on.
Some times the owner talks the real estate agent into turning the water on and there have been leaks that the agent had to deal with and that is why I do not do it.
There was an inspector in Georgia that that turned on the water in a home and the seller had been replacing the water heater in the basement and had left the 3/4" water line uncapped. The inspector did his upstairs inspection then went to do his basement inspection only to find a swimming pool where the basement used to be it was over 1/2 full of water. I think his insurance company dropped him.
So do not turn anything on that has been off because you do not always know the reason it was turned off in the first place.

mattbatson

Thanks,
Inspector #1, that answered my question perfectly...
I am just getting into the business. I'm a G.C. and just got my home inspection license here in NC.

I have another question for you if you have the time...
I have been looking at the various tools of the trade, and there is such a huge variety out there.

Which brand of CO detector do you use?
Do you use any kind of gas detector? A thermostat for checking water temps?
I think I have found that Fluke is a good company to go with for electrical recept. tester and voltmeter...what do you use?
Thanks,
matt