The Snowbird Plumbing Checklist: Closing Your SWFL Home for the Summer

The worst water damage we see in Southwest Florida doesn't come from hurricanes. It comes from a $30 supply line that let go in June, in a house nobody entered until November. Five months is enough time for a pinhole to destroy floors, cabinets, drywall, and everything the mold reached after. The fix is a twenty-minute routine every seasonal homeowner should run before leaving — here it is, in order.

1. Shut off the main — the whole checklist in one move

Everything else on this list is refinement; this is the one that matters. With the main valve closed, a failed line can only leak what's already in the pipes — a few gallons, not a few hundred thousand.

Your main shutoff is usually at the meter box near the street or where the service line enters the house (garage wall or an exterior wall, most commonly). Turn it clockwise until it stops. If it's stiff, corroded, or you're not sure it actually sealed — that's worth a service visit before you leave, because a shutoff that doesn't shut is the same as no shutoff. We can check and replace tired valves as a quick pre-departure job.

2. Put the water heater in vacation mode — or off entirely

With the water off, your heater shouldn't sit fully powered on a sealed tank. For electric heaters (most of SWFL), flip the breaker off. Tankless units can simply stay off — one more reason tankless conversions are popular with seasonal owners. When you return: water on FIRST, confirm the tank is full, then power. An element firing in an empty tank destroys itself in minutes.

3. The small players: ice maker, washer, toilets

Three spots cause an outsized share of empty-home leaks. Turn off the ice maker's supply and let it run empty. Close the washing machine valves (those rubber hoses are the most failure-prone item in the house — if they're original, replace them with braided stainless before you go). And check each toilet's flapper — a silent runner wastes water all summer even with everything else perfect, and with the main off it can slowly drain the lines.

4. Protect the traps

Every drain has a U-shaped trap holding water that blocks sewer gas. Over an empty summer, that water evaporates — which is why so many owners come back to a house that smells like a sewer. Before leaving, pour a cup of water down each drain, then a tablespoon of mineral oil (it floats and slows evaporation). When you return, run every fixture for a minute — that refills the traps and flushes the lines awake.

5. The upgrade that watches the house for you

Everything above is manual defense. The automatic version is a smart water monitor with a shutoff valve — the Moen Flo is the one we install — plumbed into your main line. It watches pressure and flow around the clock, sends alerts to your phone anywhere in the world, and closes the valve itself if something fails. For homes in Naples, Estero, Bonita Springs, and out on Sanibel, it's become close to standard equipment — and many insurers offer premium discounts for professionally installed units, which quietly pays back part of the install.

Belt and suspenders: shut the main AND have the device. The main handles the months away; the device covers the shoulder weeks when the house is winterized-but-visited.

6. Leave a key with a plan

Whoever checks your home — property watch, neighbor, family — should know where the main shutoff is and have our number (239-850-1516). If something does go wrong, "the water is already off and here's who to call" turns a crisis into a scheduling exercise. If a leak has already left its mark when you return, document it and call before touching anything — photos first make the insurance conversation dramatically easier.

The twenty-minute version

Main off. Heater breaker off. Ice maker and washer valves closed, hoses checked. A cup of water and a splash of mineral oil in every drain. Alerts + auto-shutoff if you want the house defending itself. A key and our number with someone you trust. That's the whole routine — twenty minutes in May that saves a renovation in November. Questions about your specific setup? Call 239-850-1516 and we'll walk your house with you before you head north.