Closing up the cabin for the season

Hi Hodag:

We do have an article on the site about winterizing cabins, but I'm sure your fellow cabin owners can provide even more ideas.

Click here to see our article.

Too bad you don't go to the cabin in winter.  It's beautiful when you can sit and watch it snow and not have to go to work!  At our old cabin, we always used to take the sheets of the bed, leave the mattress cover on and cover with an old fitted sheet.  We would put down mouse poison.  We would hide the poison packets behind furniture and keep a list of where we put them as we have pets and don't want them to get into the poison.  We would put dryer sheets everywhere!  (They don't smell as bad as mothballs.  Mice don't like strong smells.)  Under couch cushions, on the bed, even in our shoes.  We never covered our furniture, but some people do.

We would put all cleaning products, shampoos, etc. either in a big metal popcorn canister or plastic bags in case they freeze and break open.  Plastic storage containers would work very well also.  Make sure you remove all food from the cabinets.  Don't want to attract the mice!

Thankfully we are able to use our newer cabin in the winter, but we do drain the pipes and turn off the heat when we're not there.   Hope this helps.

if you have drains with traps you may either want to blow out the lines or what we do is just put some windshield washer fluid in the the drain so it sits in the trap and doesn't freeze and crack.

Windshield washer fluid isn't that eco-friendly.  You might want to use RV Antifreeze.

We blow out the pipes and use RV in the traps.

Question:  A relative drains the pipes then pumps RV through them, then drains and saves the RV for next year.  He uses a pump that is pressure senative and turns itself off when the pipes are full.  He has been doing this for 30 years and can not recall where he got the pump.  Has anyone heard of such a pump and know where to get one?

Fred

I never really close my cabin up for the winter.  I have a propane furnace and I set the thermostat down to 48 degrees.  I tend to spend more time at the cabin during fall and winter than summer.  It cost me about $50 a month, but its worth it.  The winters in Nebraska are only about 4 months long so $200 is an way less than it would take a plumber to fix something.

I also use dryer sheets around the cabin to inhibit mice visits. (we've never seen any sign of mice.) I put all pillows in plastic garbage bags. I take anything that might freeze home in large plastic bins marked "cabin" and every speck of food is removed. I strip the bedding and put wool blankets over the mattresses. I leave the fridge and freezer doors propped open and put aluminum foil on the lower shelf with a pile of charcoal briquettes on it. (absorbs any unusual odors the fridge might release when not in use) We also use RV antifreeze down the drains and in the toilet tank and bowl. We always make one trip to the cabin in January to check everything out.

Going into our 1st winter with the cabin in Northern Minnesota. Thanks for all the good close-up tips especially the water related ones. We plan on keeping our propane heat on set to around 48 deg. and are going to use the cabin a time or two through the winter. Any suggestions on what if anything needs to be done to the well head? Ours is a drilled well and the head is in the open above ground, white PVC pipe and metal cap with small metal pipe at side.  Is it alright to leave it this way or should it be covered with some sort of small structure or even a bail or 2 of hay or something to keep it from being directly exposed to our famous Minnesota winters?

Finally found that it is called a demand pump and used in RVs.  The RV dealer and a plumber said one can pump RV antifreeze through the system for the winter.  Question:  Does one leave the RV antifreeze in all winter and drain it it the spring or drain it after flushing with antifreeze?

Hi Fred! We always drain our water first, then put rv anti-freeze in all the drains and toilet tank/bowl. This remains until spring when we turn the water back on and flush the remaining anti-freeze out. I guess my answer would be to leave it in all winter. We had that spell when the temps were sub-zero for several weeks and the anti-freeze became slushy. (we always check on the cabin in January). We were concerned so we added more anti-freeze to the toilet tank and bowl and have had no problems. We did have one pipe crack, but there was a dip in the line and it turned out the pipe was soft copper. A local guy came right away and fixed it for a small fee. Get to know your local folks because they will help you find the right person in your area to fix small problems. Hope this helps. Kari

Hi all.  We are also new cabin owners in the Brainerd area of MN.  We are worried about the coming winter and how to properly care for our cabin to prevent freezing of pipes and other damage that can occur due to harsh MN winters.  We hope to use our place once a month during the winter months.  Our cabin is year round, has a full concrete, unfinished basement.  Our heat is electric baseboard. 

We have more questions than we can think of, but specific ones are as follows. 1.) Each time we leave, if we turn off the water heater, water pump, open faucets,  and pour anti-freeze in each drain, do we need to leave the heat on set to at least 50 degrees?  Why?  2.) If we do need to have the heat on, is it okay to use our electric baseboard heaters or is this a fire hazard?  Would it be more efficient to heat just the basement where the pipes are with a separate propane heater?  3.)  What do we do if our electricity goes out?  We plan to install and purchase a temperature alarm for inside the cabin and our neighbors can check it, but realistically what can you do about it?  4.)  Is it possible to completely winterize in December, ie. if we decide the heating bills are killing us and we just want to shut it down.  Can this be done in the middle of winter?

Sorry for the detailed questions, I am hoping someone with expert knowledge will take pity on my lack of knowledge and help us out.  I have read article after article on this and have the basics down, but would love to find some answers to these detailed questions.   THANK YOU!!!!

Novice cabin owner

We use our cabin all winter and our first year heating bill was killing us so we decided to close it down every time we go home.  We've never had a problem..  We drain the pipes (they are pitched so they are easy to drain), drain the on-demand hot water tank, get most of the water out of the toilet, pour RV anti-freeze in the drain traps and in the toilet and toilet tank.  When we are ready to go back to the cabin, we call the guy who plows us out and he goes in and turns on the propane heaters about 2 days before we are scheduled to arrive.  We have a Rinnai propane heater in our basement, also.  Our builder suggested putting one in there to help keep the basement and pipes warmer.  We just put in a pellet stove last March to supplement the propane heat.  It is in the basement also and we are putting in floor vents before winter sets in.

We have had our cabin for about 20 years and as most, it is a work in progress. We do not have heat so our cabin, for the most part is closed for the winter. I prefer to strip the beds and let the mattress air out. It is a good opportunity to wash everything. I remove from the cabin anything that will freeze and bring it home in a milk crate or whatever and just leave it intact to bring back down in the Spring. As for the mice, several years ago I stuffed steel wool around all supply lines and this has done the trick as this is where they were coming in. I also put dryer sheets around the baseboards. Good luck.

I think having a good RV Hot Water Heater would be good for your RV's needs if it still having problems on your needs. I hope that all will be well by now.