If you have a summer vacation home, then you’re probably used to the process of winterizing your home. But in the spring, it’s time to reverse all that hard work and get your home ready for another season of memories. Ready to learn how to dewinterize a house? Keep reading for our best tips.

How to Winterize a Home

The process of winterizing your vacation home is designed to ensure no major damage is done while you’re away.

Typically the winterizing process involves turning off your water supply, draining your pipes and turning off external faucets to ensure pipes don’t freeze and lead to water damage.

You might also shut off electric circuits, check that smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are working properly, set up a security system, clean your gutters, turn off your gas hook-up or furnace and generally just get the home ready to shut down for the cold winter months.

So how do you reverse that process to de-winterize a house in the spring? Follow along with these tips.

How to Dewinterize a House

When spring has sprung and it’s time to de-winterize your vacation home, the process pretty much looks like the opposite of winterizing. 

Some of the things you’ll want to add to your de-winterizing list include:

Turning The Water Supply Back On

This is one of the most important parts of learning how to dewinterize a house – and one of the most time-consuming. In order to properly turn your water supply back on and get it working well, you’ll want to take your time getting everything up and running.

First, remove any aerators from your faucets – including on kitchen sinks, bathroom sinks, laundry sinks and outside faucets. Removing them allows any build-up to be drained from the system.

Then, open the water supply valves under each sink (with the faucet handles in the closed position). Check the supply lines to your fridge and freezer too and get those reconnected if they were removed. Open the supply valve on the hot water heater, too, and open an exterior hose faucet.

Once you’ve done all of this, it’s time to open the valve at the water meter itself. Take your time and open this valve slowly to ensure the initial water pressure doesn’t build too quickly and lead to leaks.

Check that the water heater is filling up and, once it is, start turning on the water at each faucet, tub, shower and toilet. Do this slowly too. You may hear some sputtering or splashing when they’re first turned on, but that’s totally normal.

Once you see that everything is working properly, let the water run for several minutes to flush out the system and then move on to your next task to de-winterize a home. If you’re not comfortable doing this work yourself, consider hiring a handyman to help.

Get your HVAC system up and running

If you turned your gas or furnace off for the winter, start there. Turn your heat (and cooling) source back on and consider bringing out a professional for an inspection and cleaning service. This is especially important if you’ll be using an air conditioning system throughout the summer months. You might also want to replace A/C filters for the freshest air possible.

Once everything is running smoothly, reprogram your thermostat as needed to keep you cool all summer long.

Test your alarms

You probably did this as part of winterizing your home, but it’s an important part of dewinterizing a home, too. Test your smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors and any home security system you might have to ensure they’re all still working properly after the winter is gone.

Plug in appliances

Many times winterizing a home involves unplugging appliances, lamps, televisions and other devices. Go around your home, plug everything back in and test to ensure they’re working.

Check home and property for any signs of damage or debris

Give your home and yard a full inspection and look for signs of any animals (think mice, squirrels, etc) that may have made your cozy spot their winter home. Look, too, for any fallen tree limbs, leaves and other debris in your gutters and any damage to fencing, decks and outdoor furniture.

Don’t forget about your mail

If you set up mail forwarding during the winter months, you’ll want to turn that off and start getting mail to your vacation home again. Consider also whether you also need to set up forwarding from a winter home to your summer home or whether you need to update your address with any service providers.

Need Help Figuring Out How to Dewinterize a House?

Just like winterizing a home, de-winterizing it can be a lot of work! That’s where we come in. A Votre Service’s team of Hamptons house cleaning and property management specialists can help your vacation home get ready for summer.

Need help with dewinterizing or vacation home cleaning? Contact A Votre Service today to learn more.