# HO asked me to winterize his home.



## vinpadalino (Aug 27, 2010)

I don't like doing these jobs because one little miss and you have a broken pipe on your hands. The home has a well tank, water softener, electric water heater, furnace which is helpful. 2.5 bathrooms. All tanks have to be drained. Any good tips to get the water out of the tricky spots?


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## DownHill (Oct 15, 2010)

Compressed Air.


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

DownHill said:


> Compressed Air.


Lots of it!
That little pancake compressor doesn't fit the bill...:no:

Try one of these...


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*thats easy how much $$*

I have done thousands of them since 1998

if you get a good air compressor and long 150 foot hose 
you have basically got it beat... I have my hose adapted to a 
garden reel in my truck next to the compressor and generator...

I just reel it out and pull it into the home to the furtherest fixture... 


actually the pancake compressor set on 150 psi has worked very good for me
but I have burnt out about 5 of them over the years


find a peice of old acetyline hose 6 foot long from an old torch kit and attach it to one of those little hand held air guns that come in those cheap assorted packages you can buy..at lowes..with all the hose adaptors in it
... then you can go around blow down every faucet in the home with that small hose
with 150 psi going though that hand held gun you can literally watch the water jump
out of the lines......


usually I will disconnect the water softener and blow it out too
that is where you can get into troubles if you dont blow it out it will
crack open like an egg shell


how much are they willing to pay you???.


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## vinpadalino (Aug 27, 2010)

Thanks guys. Question about blowing the faucets out. I take the compressor and blow into the spout of the faucet? Or disconnect both supply lines and blow the lines from there?


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

Actually the best way is to disconnect at the meter and hook it in there once you have drained the system down as good as possible. I couldn't disagree more with Master Mark about the use of a small compressor. If it has worked well for him he has exceptional luck on his side or, the homes would have drained down well enough with out it...:laughing:

It takes considerable volume to blow the water out of the bottom of a u-shaped pipe, and even using a garden hose through a sillcock may not have enough flow with a sufficiently large enough compressor. Once hooked in turning on each fixture allowing the air to blow the water along is the best you can do and even then in some cases you won't get it all.

Here we have a ton of seasonal homes and many are constructed with drain downs in mind with every supply line pitched. Reliability on those systems is good and often it was figured out in the first few years with a hit and miss along with some repairs. These days a lot of those homes have been torn down and the new ones built are designed more as year round homes but many want to close and winterize in the off-season...


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## Optimus Primer (May 20, 2009)

with all this global warming going on you shouldnt have to winterize a house. :whistling2:


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## RealLivePlumber (Jun 22, 2008)

Big air, and lots of it




Also, I have found that a powerful shop vac can get a bit more water outa faucets and such.


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## liquidplumber (Dec 6, 2009)

I don't trust the air compressor method. The few homes I winterize each year get glycol pumped in till I see it come out each fixture. Never had a problem. :thumbsup:


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## breid1903 (Feb 8, 2009)

spot on lp. breid...............:rockon:


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*Call me Mr luckey*



Redwood said:


> Actually the best way is to disconnect at the meter and hook it in there once you have drained the system down as good as possible. I couldn't disagree more with Master Mark about the use of a small compressor. If it has worked well for him he has exceptional luck on his side or, the homes would have drained down well enough with out it...:laughing:


It is not luck, it is skill redwood.....:laughing::yes::yes:
have done well with a porter 3 gallon pancake compressor...and an acetelyne hose on the end of a
hand held air sprayer.... never had a problem .

its all pretty easy.... all you got to do is use your basic knowledge of pipeing.... 
if its a slab home, its wise to disconnect the lowest lines in the house on both hot and cold and blow everything out from the laundry outlets...water blows like old faithful..

sometimes you have to cut lines to blow out trapped 
water softerners ect..... they dont care....

I had considered going bigger, but have not had the need to.... with 150 psi you can watch the water jump out of most of the pipes when you blow in the lavatory faucets...and laundry faucets.

of course with a 30 gallon compressor hooked up to
the laundry faucets, I suppose it could literally blow the faucets apart.....:laughing:

From 2003 through 2008 I was doing on average 5 ++ houses a day every day from october 1st through april 15...never had any problems at all...
my personal best day was 9 houses......


then it all came to an end with the government wanting to have more control over all of it.. with a lot of political bribes by some local restoration places to get all the work....

I did a few today, and honestly I dont miss it too much...They are all located in very bad neighborhoods.. too much risk getting killed. .....you got to pack a gun and watch your back. at all times..

to hell with it...


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## Epox (Sep 19, 2010)

I did a few today, and honestly I dont miss it too much...They are all located in very bad neighborhoods.. too much risk getting killed. .....you got to pack a gun and watch your back. at all times..

to hell with it... 
__________________

I've felt the need to lock the truck up but pack a gun? Not sure any job in THAT neighborhood is worth it.


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

I'll call you lucky Mark...

Or, maybe you never had to turn the water back on in those homes you winterized...:whistling2:

It's not the 150 psi that makes the water jump out of those pipes...
In fact should you even put 150 psi pressure on the system?:whistling2:
It's the The 100 scfm of air ripping through the pipe that blows the water out of the pipe...

That little pancake with its 4-5 scfm output is a toy...:laughing:
Take a look at the specs for that unit I doubt it tops 115 psi and 4-5 scfm...

Most of the customers we do winterizations for also have us reactivate the system in the spring....
These aren't ghetto homes either...
Beachfront property on Long Island sound is as far from ghetto as you can get...

It seems to work....:whistling2:


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## vinpadalino (Aug 27, 2010)

Someone said to pump anti freeze in the system. The kind they use for trailers (pink stuff). What are your thought on going that route?


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## RealLivePlumber (Jun 22, 2008)

I think if you dont have a tag compressor, the anti freeze is a fine way to go. It would be more expensive, though. 

I have seen homes that were blown out with a pancake compressor, and froze a plenty. I think that such a small volume of air will flow above any standing water in the pipe, allowing it to remain partially full, no matter how long you let it flow through. 

Same thing with irrigation. We do a couple, you get a mist for several minutes, with 100 psi @ 100 CFM. That mist is water. You must blow it untill the mist is gone. You can not do it with a pancake compressor.


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*gettos and beach fronts*



Redwood said:


> I'll call you lucky Mark...
> 
> 
> That little pancake with its 4-5 scfm output is a toy...:laughing:
> ...


 
Redwood would you like me to post some pics of my set up so you can laugh at it???:laughing:

I do very well with no call backs or problems ..
I have done thousands of them...I have never had to 
go back and make repairs to anything I did........

Many of the people we have been with for 10 years use me when they are allowed to by the banks becasue I am the only one that they can trust to do it right.... 
They have had total disasters and lost a big sale in nice homes over the years becasue they were forced to let some preservation service send out a mexican to do the winterization... 

and they dont blow anythign down at all.. they just pour antifreeze in the traps

and believe it or not they are only getting 60 bucks. total

mostly everything we do it average of 100 to 350k homes,, occasionally more.... but lately its been mostly dumps

the one yesterday I took a step into the bathroom and 
thought I was gonna fall into the basement . And of course I am packing when I go down into the dark basement to drain the heater and loosen the meter.... got a guy out at the truck gurading it too.....


I have recently bought a 30 gallon compressor because I thought I would be doing hundreds of them this winter
it stands upright like a water heater.... and that puppy 
hooked to a laundry outlet will blow some serious air.

they wont pay anything $60 so I am not doing them..

its still new in the box and probably will go back to lowes.....


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

RealLivePlumber said:


> I think if you dont have a tag compressor, the anti freeze is a fine way to go. It would be more expensive, though.
> 
> *I have seen homes that were blown out with a pancake compressor, and froze a plenty. I think that such a small volume of air will flow above any standing water in the pipe, allowing it to remain partially full, no matter how long you let it flow through. *
> 
> Same thing with irrigation. We do a couple, you get a mist for several minutes, with 100 psi @ 100 CFM. That mist is water. You must blow it untill the mist is gone. You can not do it with a pancake compressor.


*Zackly!*


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

Master Mark said:


> Redwood would you like me to post some pics of my set up so you can laugh at it???:laughing:


:laughing::laughing::laughing:

Sure if you want...

Just the fact that you say its foreclosure winterizations says it all...
I've undone so many of those and I don't know whose fault it was...
But I've seen enough that when they ask how much to get everything going again I just say it depends on how much freeze damage there is...

I tell them it might be as simple as turning on the water and filling things up...:laughing:
Or, it might be a couple of days work....
Truth be told I've never seen a foreclosure where I just turned on the water and filled it up...:whistling2:
But I don't want to dash their hopes....

To give the credit where credit is due I saw a winterization tag on a house where it was done in the middle of January and the utilities were shut off in August... 
Do you think it might have been to little to late?

I've seen it all...
Split pipes, cartridges pushed out of mixers, appliances with split solenoid valves and pumps, oh yea and even a split cast iron boiler...:laughing:

The sky is the limit!:laughing:


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

vinpadalino said:


> Someone said to pump anti freeze in the system. The kind they use for trailers (pink stuff). What are your thought on going that route?


I wouldn't even consider it...
The cost is higher...
The antifreeze is how much a gallon and how many do you need?:whistling2:
On the back end how long does it take to flush that bad taste out...
That stuff has a remarkable cling effect...

Or you can get the "Premium" tasteless stuff...:whistling2:

Personally even if you line up your winterizations together, then run around for a couple of days with a tag compressor you rent, you'll make serious money and have good winterizations...


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

*serous money*



Redwood said:


> .
> :whistling2:
> 
> Personally even if you line up your winterizations together, then run around for a couple of days with a tag compressor you rent, you'll make serious money and have good winterizations...


 
the good old days are over with this gig 
and I had it down to a fine art.....

I made serious money all winter long from 1998 though
2007 ...... 5 or more lined up every day...
I really needed a GPS...
.. 
basicallly it was a treasure hunt, 
picking up all the goodies that were left behind 
inside the home and outside too

I grabbed a huge boulder for my yard yesterday
had to throw it on the Tommy Lift just to get it.
my yard looks like stone henge...:laughing: 


yes some were already frozen over and it was more a
issue of damage control.....


we have both seen the same things.... .
you go though the motions just to cover the agents ass
and fill out a report for damages and take pictures for them.....


it was kinda fun, but not at 60 each plus pressurizeing and testing out 
every home for an hour.. no way in hell am I gonna do that


now I just go out in the spring and make repairs to 
others work......


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

We never did much in the foreclosure winterizations.
They get what they pay for...:laughing:

Fixed plenty of them afterwards...:laughing:

The bulk of our winterizations are seasonal homes which is a whole different thing...

Their owners pay the price to have it done right and like to come back in the spring without a bunch of damage....


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## Protech (Sep 22, 2008)

If it was absolutly essential to get it all out you could use a shopvac at the water meter and blow hot dry air at the faucets. Run a torchover the basement water lines and then pull a deep vacuum. No freeze dammage, guaranteed.


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## Redwood (Sep 8, 2008)

Protech said:


> If it was absolutly essential to get it all out you could use a shopvac at the water meter and blow hot dry air at the faucets. Run a torchover the basement water lines and then pull a deep vacuum. No freeze dammage, guaranteed.


While the shop vac has decent cfm its sealed pressure is only measured in water column...

It is sadly lacking in that area...

Try pulling a deep vacuum on a delta ball faucet....:laughing:


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