Leaving A Mesa House Empty For The Summer Without Coming Back To A Flood

The worst water damage we see all year is not the dramatic burst pipe with someone standing in it. It is the quiet one in an empty house, where a supply line fails in June and runs until a neighbour notices in September.

The damage from six weeks of running water is a different category. Drywall has wicked up several feet, cabinet boxes have swollen and collapsed, the flooring is a write-off, and the house has been sitting at 110 degrees with no air conditioning the entire time, which is close to ideal conditions for mold. Those jobs usually start with us telling an owner in Alberta what cannot be saved, and they run as burst pipe cleanup plus mold remediation rather than a straightforward dry-out.

Turning the water off at the main before you leave prevents essentially all of it. Two minutes with a valve. If you keep landscaping irrigation running, it sits on a separate line in most Valley properties, so you can close the house supply without killing the plants.

Second: leave the air conditioning running at 85 rather than switching it off. Running it costs less over a summer than one drywall and flooring repair, it keeps the humidity down, and it means the house is not sitting in the conditions mold likes. One caution on that, though. An air conditioner running all summer in an empty house is also the setup for a condensate line to block and overflow with nobody there to notice, so get the line flushed in spring before you go.

Third: replace the braided supply hoses on the washing machine and toilets if they are more than five years old. They are the single most common failure point and they cost almost nothing. Fourth: have somebody physically walk through once a fortnight. Not a drive-past. Someone who opens the door, listens, looks at the ceilings and checks under the sinks. A water sensor under the water heater and behind each toilet costs less than dinner and will text a phone anywhere in the world.

Fifth: leave a key with a local contact and tell them who to call, so the assessment can happen without waiting for a flight. We do a lot of these key-holder visits in Gold Canyon, East Mesa and Apache Junction, where half the street is empty from May.

If you are already past that point and someone has just called you about your house, we can be there today, and you get photos, moisture readings and a scope by evening. (480) 701-8140.