In alt.home.repair on 17 Oct 2004 20:10:40 -0700
(Chet Hayes) posted:

Tony Hwang wrote in message news:%XAcd.765815$gE.282393@pd7tw3no...
Christine wrote:
Hi -- I purchased a small ski house in Canada last year so it's my
second winter. When I bought the house there were a fair number of
cracks in the walls, which my neighbor said was a result of rapid
heating - i.e. the previous owners would leave the house unheated when
they weren't there then crank it when they were, resulting in the
cracks. When I got the cracks fixed/the interior painted this summer,
though, the contractor who did the job said that absolutely wasn't the
issue, it was a bad taping job that caused the cracks and I didn't
need to worry about heating the place when I wasn't there. It does get
cold up, up to -20F at times last winter.

So what's the truth? I don't want to ruin the new walls, but at the
same time if there's no reason to heat it I'd rather not. It's
electric heat and can be quite expensive. If I should keep it on, how
high should it be? The neighbor says 60 degrees. Thanks for any
guidance (I'm a female, first time homeowner with fairly limited
domestic knowledge at this point!).

Hi,
I have a cottage out in the woods here in Alberta. It is for 4 season
use and built for that. Has NG furnace and fire place. When not in use
year round, I set the thermostat at 10 deg. C. Of course in summer
furnace never kicks in at that setting. In winter, it does a few times
when weather gets real cold. The building is of 2X6 walls with R20
insulation. When I go out there in winter I turn on fire place and set
the thermostat to 20 deg. C or so. Never had wall cracking problem.
If you don't heat, what about plumbing? It may freeze.
My winter temp. is upto -50 deg. F with wind chill.
Tony


Plumbing may freeze? It surely will with outside temps of -20F. The
house either has to have the heat left on or else the water system
needs to be winterized. Since it's a ski house, it doesn't sound
practical to go through winterizing it and renewing it for each visit.

Oh yeah, winterizing. Don't some people put antifreeze in the toilets
and sinks traps? A 50/50 ratio gives the most protection, but to do
that you have to estimate how much is in the trap. (Toilets have a
trap to but it is built into the toilet. The trap is the water that
you can see in the bottom of the toilet, plus a smaller amount of
water at the same height in the tube leading out and up from the back
of the bowl. Then you have to remember not to use the sink or flush
the toilet before you leave.

I'd set the thermostat for 50 degrees. Any lower than that, with -20
outside, you still might have freezing problems. It really depends on
how well the heat system is balanced and how well insulation was done
in exterior walls around water pipes. Also, leave cabinet doors under

Good point. My friend lives in Herndon Va, 30 miles SW of Washington
DC, and the first winter the pipe burst in his kitchen, in the wall
but not so near his sink. It must be a pipe to a bathroom upstairs.
Turns out that the builder had put the insulation between the pipe and
the inside of the wall, not the outside like he should have. And this
is northern Virginia, where it rarely even snows. (once a year?) And
they were home at the time and using most of the faucets. The house
was new so the builder paid for the repairs.

Other than sinks built under a window, like our first two houses, is
there really a reason to put pipes in outside walls? (And with
dishwashers, does anyone spend substantial time at the sink anymore,
that it helps to have it with a window?)

sinks by outside walls open to let more warm air in.


Meirman
If emailing, please let me know whether
or not you are posting the same letter.

Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.