Why would you have to re-winterize it? If you turn the water on and everything is fine, can’t you leave the heat set to 55 degrees, leave the doors under the sinks open, and let it be? If there is a whole house drain you can drain that and then still leave the heat on.
it’s going to be 0 again this week in NJ. I think the issue with the water is the prior owner may not have paid the bill (it is a short sale), so the water is turned off by the utility. Same issue likely w gas heat.
I know we’ve exchanged PMs, but if there’s been no heat, I would also be wary of the hot water heater, as they don’t do well in the extreme cold. I think your son needs to have his mind accepting there will be at least $5000 of expenses that will crop up immediately after closing. It is NJ and contractors cost far more than in iother parts of the country.
As far as I know the heat should be operational because the gas is not turned off to the house, but I don’t know if it has been turned on or if it was shut off at the furnace (for safety a person might turn it off while home is empty.) I have suggested we leave the heat on, but that idea was turned down. I suppose that S could still back out of the deal after the inspection, leaving them to re-winterize or pay the heat bill. I will ask the plumber about the hwh and the cold. I assume (and we all know about assuming…)the hwh was drained for winterizing, so hopefully its ok. I have no idea of the age of it.
@surfcity (NJ??) I just listened today to a radio discussion about all the people around here whose pipes are freezing even with them in the home. I think it might be risky to leave it at 55 with nobody in the house, though I wish we could.
Someone mentioned the inspections would add to the cost basis, which is good, but which expenses can he deduct? taxes and interest only? I have to get him a folder for this house and explain to him how/why to use it, especially in case it turns into a rental property down the road (which is his dream), this is not his forever home, hopefully…
How old is your son?
With the hot water heater, they may have drained it, usually when they winterize a place they drain the hot water tank, too (among other things, the hot water tank helps drain both the hot and cold water pipes). Plus hot water tanks may not necessarily have problems if it did freeze, the glass liner can break, but it is likely there is room enough for the ice to expand that it may not have been damaged. It all depends on how well the house was winterized, if the water was totally drained (which is not that big a deal), or if 90% of it was drained at least, there is a good likelyhood there won’t be problems, the problems happen when a system is totally full of water and it freezes, since there is no room for the ice to expand.
S is 24. Smart, but stupid, as young men can often be.
It was winterized in October.
The bank is the one who is requiring that we re-winterize.
We can turn the heat up when we go to inspection on Monday.
I drove by to show my friend and met another nice old gentleman neighbor (the second one). He moved in his house when it was new. He knew the date, august 3, 1951. Says the house we are looking at moved in a week later. He said his oil tank is in the basement and has always been. As far as he knows that’s how they were all built.
He even knew something about the seller. He said she moved in with her boyfriend, then he moved out, then he moved back, then he moved out and she got a new boyfriend. She moved out to the boyfriends place.
I think the decision is that the water will be turned on for a full inspection. We are practicing the theory that while hindsight is 20/20, foresight can wiser.
One lesson I learned, don’t buy a vacant house in the winter!
As far as the hot water heater, it should be fine if the winterizing was done properly. Since the bank had it done the first time they are requiring that it be re winterized. My assumption is that the bank required, or hired, a pro to do it so the hwh should be ok. For all I know,the hwh is really old anyway. H just bought an investment condo and the listing said the hwh and heat were 6 years old. At inspection we found out the hwh is 13! The heater is 2008 I believe. The condo was empty but not winterized. The heat was set to 68 every time we went by. (It’s an estate sale, not on market long)
Thanks for your comments and suggestions.
Check out this chart to determine the age of the hot water heater
Great link. Nj2011mom, also I found link to home inspection topics forum. http://www.nachi.org/forum/
Young buyers probably want to overlook flaws, and most of us want to find any and all …