Nothing ruins the post holiday glow faster than opening the front door to the smell of damp carpet. Plumbing failures do not take holidays, and an unoccupied house converts a small failure into a large one, because the leak that would have been spotted in minutes gets days or weeks to work instead. The entire risk can be managed with about twenty minutes of preparation before you leave. Here is the checklist we give our own families, in the order that matters most.
Turn off the water at the mains
This is the one step that outranks all the others combined. With the main supply off, a failed hose or fitting can only release the water already sitting in the pipes, a few litres at most, instead of an unlimited flow for the duration of your trip. Find the meter at the front of the property, turn the valve clockwise until it stops, and test a tap to confirm. If the valve is seized, stiff or weeping, do not force it, and treat the discovery as a gift, because a mains valve you cannot operate is a serious liability worth fixing before you travel, not after.
Deal with the flexi hoses
Braided flexible hoses under sinks, basins and toilets are the most common cause of internal flooding in Australian homes, and they fail without warning. While you are checking under each fixture, look for rust spots, fraying braid or bulging, and replace anything suspect before you go. If turning off the mains is not practical for your situation, at minimum close the individual isolation valves feeding the washing machine, dishwasher and toilets, which puts the highest risk hoses out of action.
Set the hot water system appropriately
For a trip of a week or more, there is no reason to keep a tank of water hot for an empty house. Most storage systems have a holiday or vacation setting that maintains a low temperature economically, and gas systems can be turned to pilot. If you have shut off the mains, remember the pairing rule, an electric storage system must not be left heating with the water off, so switch it off at the breaker as well. Instantaneous systems need no attention at all, which is one of their quiet advantages.
Give every drain a reason to behave
Drains cause a different kind of homecoming misery, the smell. The water sitting in every trap is what blocks sewer gas from entering your home, and in a hot Perth summer, unused traps can evaporate dry in a few weeks, letting the drain smell straight in. Before leaving, run every tap for thirty seconds and flush every toilet to fill the traps, and pour a cup of water down floor wastes in the laundry and bathrooms. For absences beyond a month, a spoonful of cooking oil floated on each floor waste slows the evaporation dramatically. If any drain is already slow or gurgling, have it cleared before you leave, because a marginal drain plus weeks of stagnation is how you come home to a blockage with seniority.
Think about the outside
Check that garden taps are closed properly and hoses are disconnected. If you have reticulation, either leave it on its normal schedule for the garden’s sake or check the solenoids are closing fully, since a stuck solenoid can run a station continuously into the ground unseen. Clear leaves from around external drains and gullies, especially if your absence spans winter, so the first storm has somewhere to send its water.
Recruit a human
Technology helps, but nothing beats a neighbour, friend or relative walking through the house once a week. Ask them to listen for hissing, look under sinks, check ceilings for new stains and run a tap or two to keep traps wet. Leave them our number alongside your own, because a leak found on day three and handled while you are away is an anecdote, while the same leak found on day twenty is an insurance claim.
The return home routine
When you get back, reverse the process gently. Open the mains slowly, let the taps run until the air clears, restore the hot water setting and give it time to reheat, and have a quick look and sniff at every wet area. Any surprise, a stain, a smell, a meter that moves with everything off, deserves attention promptly rather than after the washing is done. And if the surprise is bigger than a stain, remember that Drains Plus operates 24 hours across Perth. We would rather help you before the trip than rescue you after it, but we are here for both.
For longer absences, a month or more, step the preparation up a level. Consider draining the pipes entirely after shutting the mains, open the dishwasher and washing machine doors to let seals breathe, and prop internal doors open so air circulates through the wet areas. Perth’s summer heat inside a sealed house is remarkably good at finding any moisture you left behind and converting it into mould, and airflow is the cheap defence. If the property will sit vacant across winter, make sure gutters and surrounds are clear enough that stormwater has a path away from the building, and that any known slow drain has been dealt with rather than deferred.
