Coming back for the season? A 20-minute plumbing walkthrough before you unpack

The house has been closed since April. The water has been off, the air has been set to 80, and a lot can happen to plumbing over a Southwest Florida summer without anyone there to notice. Before the suitcases come in, spend twenty minutes walking the house in this order. Most seasons you will find nothing. The year you find something, you will be glad you looked before the ceiling did.

Open the main slowly, then listen

Start at the main shutoff, at the meter box or where the line enters the house. Open it a quarter turn, wait, and listen. Water rushing into a closed system should slow down and stop within a few seconds as the lines fill. If it keeps running, something is open or broken. Close the valve and go find out what.

Once the sound stops, open the valve the rest of the way. If the main does not turn easily, do not force it. A brittle handle or a seized gate valve can break in your hand and leave you with a problem you did not have a minute ago.

Run every faucet and flush every toilet

Walk every room and open each faucet, hot and cold, for a minute. Expect sputtering, air, and cloudy or brown water at first. That is normal after months of standing water and clears quickly. Flush every toilet and watch the tank refill and shut off. Run each shower and tub.

• Dry traps. The water in every drain trap evaporates over the summer, and sewer gas comes into the house through the empty traps. Running water in every drain, including the ones you never use, refills them and the smell goes away.
• Water color. If a tap runs rust colored and stays that way after several minutes, or the hot water is discolored while the cold is clear, note which one. That points to a corroding water heater or old galvanized pipe rather than the utility.
• Toilets. After the tank fills, put a few drops of food coloring in it and wait ten minutes. Color in the bowl means a flapper that has hardened over the summer and needs replacing. A toilet that runs unnoticed for a season is a real water bill.

Look under every sink, then behind every appliance

Open every vanity and the kitchen cabinet and put a hand on the floor of it. Look at the angle stops, the supply lines, and the trap. Then check the appliances:

• Washing machine. Look at the hoses and the valves behind the machine. Rubber hoses that have been under pressure for years fail without warning, and a burst hose runs at full flow. If yours are rubber or more than about five years old, replace them with braided stainless before the first load.
• Dishwasher and ice maker. These lines sit unused all summer. Run a dishwasher cycle and check under it for water. Dump the first bin of ice, since it is made from water that sat in the line for months.
• Garbage disposal. Run cold water and turn it on. If it hums and does not spin, it is stuck. Turn it off and press the reset button on the bottom. Never put a hand in it.

Outside: hose bibs and the irrigation backflow

Open and close each hose bib and check for drips at the stem. Sun and salt air on the islands and along the beach take a toll on the packing and the handle. If you have an irrigation system, find the backflow device on it, usually a brass assembly on a pipe near the front of the house, and look for cracks, leaks, or green corrosion where the winter lawn service might not have noticed.

Check the water heater before you power it

Do not turn the breaker on yet. Look in the drain pan under the tank for water or a rust ring, look at the end of the relief line for drips, and look at the connections on top for green or white crust. Then open a hot faucet in the house and wait until it runs in a full, steady stream. That means the tank is full. Only then turn on the breaker or the gas. An electric water heater powered up with air in the tank burns out the upper element, and it happens fast. Give it an hour and check the hot side again.

Read the meter with everything off

This is the check that catches what your eyes cannot. Close every faucet, make sure no toilet is filling, and turn off the ice maker. Go to the meter. Most meters have a small triangle, star, or wheel that turns when any water moves. Watch it for two minutes. If it moves at all, water is going somewhere in the house with everything off. Write down the reading, wait an hour without using water, and read it again. Any change is a leak, and on a slab home that leak is often under the floor where you will never see it.

If something is wet, stop here

Finding it is the homeowner’s part. Damp drywall, a stained ceiling, water in the water heater pan, a meter that moves, or a valve that will not close are where the walkthrough ends and diagnosis begins. Do not pull cabinets or open walls to chase it. Turn off the water at the fixture or at the main, take a photo, and leave it dry until someone can trace it properly.

If your walkthrough turned up a wet spot, a moving meter, or water that will not run clear, send us what you found and where. We can usually tell from a few photos whether it is a quick fix or something that needs tracing, and we will tell you which before anything else happens.