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mickus1
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2008 11:54am
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I am considering building a cabin to use primarily in the winter for skiing. With the price of fuel and utilities, I do not want to heat the cabin when we are not there. I am looking for ideas on winterizing the cabin when we are not ther. The primary source of heat will be a woodburning stove. I also would have electric base boards, which I do not want to leave on when we are not there.I a, specifically looking for ideas on how to drain the house easily. Since I have not built it yet, I can incorporate any ideas really easily.
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CabinBuilder
Admin
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# Posted: 1 Aug 2008 12:34pm
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I think insulating cabin walls, floor and ceiling is very important for winter use.
If you plan to install plumping, water needs to be drained at the lowest point before you leave.
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soundandfurycabin
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# Posted: 2 Aug 2008 04:47pm
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Try to group the plumbing fixtures so you only need one drain, eg. have the kitchen sink on the opposite side of the wall from the bathroom. Of course make sure the water lines all slope back to the drain. If you're using PEX, use lots of support clips and make sure it doesn't sag between them. PEX is more resistant to freezing than copper pipe, but even PEX will split after a few freezes. Make it easy to reach all the shutoff and drain valves. You will still need to dump a bit of plumbing/RV (not engine) antifreeze in the toilet and sink/shower/tub traps. Flush the toilet a couple times first to get all the water out of the tank.
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Anonymous
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# Posted: 30 Nov 2009 10:00am
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the outside garden hose faucet makes a good drain faucet if you can design it to be at the lowest spot of the system - and you save money because you usually want a hose faucet anyway. but you will also need an outside hot water hose faucet - a bit unusual but it comes in handy to rinse off hands after gardening etc when it is chilly outside such as early spring.
for topological situations where you have a separate low spot, such as under a dishwasher, you can run small diameter pipe from there down thru the floor and bring all your separate low spots together under the house before leading to the still-lower hose bib faucet -- sort of like how you can also connect all plumbing vents togetehr to one high spot that then pierces the roof.
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flatwater
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# Posted: 1 Dec 2009 08:14pm
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You really haven't said much of how your hooked up. I gather you have electricity by mention of baseboards. Are you on a well? Cistern ? gravity feed ?
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Rick
Member
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# Posted: 23 Jan 2010 11:29pm
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mikus,
I plumbed a 12 year old cabin just like you would a house that was plumbed with PEX tubing using manifolds. I put shutoffs at the bottom of the manifolds going to a central drain. then to drain it I shut off the pressure line and vent it, then I hook a wet vac to the drain line and open and close all of the faucets, toilet, ect.
this has worked great and the cabin has been in sub zero weather for a month at a time.
additional info: I have a well and can drain down the supply line too.
all lines are insulated.
Thats about it.
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Moontreeranch
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# Posted: 29 Jan 2010 03:31pm
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also you might want to add a high point vent...opening it will allow the water to drain more quickly...some seasonal cabins I have worked on also have an inlet near the "Heat tape protected source" (well or utility tap" that can accommodate an air compressor feed...this allows them to "blow down" the entire system like you might for a lawn irrigation system. During the winter they use buckets to flush...brought in via jugs...and go rustic with washing cooking etc. they then add more anti freeze (RV kind) to the toilet.
Our cabin is designed with no plumbing...we use jugs for washing cooking and use a sawdust composter for toilet...during our new years eve stay we melted from snow over 20 gallons on the woodstove for washing dishes etc ...so we only used about 3 gallons for drinking coffee etc.
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toyota_mdt_tech
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# Posted: 28 Mar 2010 01:00pm
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Draining the plumbing I assume. Put in an outside hose bib, this can be at the lowest point in your plumbing. Your supply line can come under the floor, large shut off valve, a "T" after the shut o ff. The one leg of the T can go to the outside faucet, but give it its own shut off. Then run the rest inside the cabin for plumbing. But the plumber must make all plumbing so it can drain off (sloped downhill) and then just shut off the main supply line valve, open the outside hose bib and crack open a few inside faucets to allow air in and watch it all bleed off. If you have a water heater, a drain outside at the base of that too.
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steveqvs
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# Posted: 28 Mar 2010 02:03pm
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Also in a cabin like this if you paint any indoor surfaces you will want to use an outdoor house paint. From what I have read these type of paints contract and expand without cracking.
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campo
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# Posted: 13 Dec 2010 10:27pm
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I would also install an x-10 phone activated switch, this will let you call 6-8 ahead and turn baseboard heating on, so you arrive to a warm house... it is a very cheap luxury.
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Anonymous
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2012 04:02pm
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I have a cabin with a self draining system and I replaced the kitchen faucet with a new faucet but the new faucets are not made to drain water out of the new style cartridges that are in them. I've went thru 2 faucet now . Do you know of any kitchen faucets that will drain. We're there almost every weekend so we do this a lot. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks.
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MtnDon
Member
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2012 04:13pm
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We had the same problem, plus with the shower valve.
Have you tried installing an air fitting so you can just blow air through the system? I have a small air compressor I leave it hooked up the the air port. Turn it on and go around opening and closing the faucets.
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turkeyhunter
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2012 04:22pm
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just got home from draining my pipes in my old camp and spigot at the new camp....drained water heater, took pressure off of the tank at well. Got it ready for our "cold snap".....:-)
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Just
Member
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2012 05:10pm
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Quoting: Anonymous faucets are not made to drain water
the older type fausets with a stem and a washer drain well
i think '" Waltec" still make them .
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bobrok
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2012 05:26pm
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OP was back in 2008, so I don't know if still relevant, but:
Our camp had no plumbing when we bought it. I plumbed kitchen and bathroom with pex, too, using the drain suggestions above. I also bought neutral color (white) pex rather than the red and blue used to distinguish hot/cold and ran all of the plumbing inside the camp as opposed to inside the walls. I ran everything along the point where ceilings and walls meet to take advantage of heat. The white is not unpleasant to look at and it certainly won't freeze when in use.
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wakeslayer
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# Posted: 2 Jan 2012 06:25pm - Edited by: wakeslayer
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If you have power, you can get a Senco PC1010 compressor for about $100 if you shop around.
I use this to blow out my entire system every time I leave our cabin.
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jjlrrw
Member
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# Posted: 18 Jan 2012 02:37pm
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We just purchased a cabin with a pellet stove, I ran all plumbing back into the well pit where I can drain it. I also added a air fitting and valve and leave a small compressor under the sink so I can also blow out the lines. My only worry is how cold does it get in a 5' deep cement well pit??? I have a 75W light burning in there now if the bulb didn't burn out. Need to look into a better heating system for the pit but just don't know if I need one yet.
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JetsOrBust
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# Posted: 17 Aug 2012 03:04pm
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Hey everyone,
Great site for information on winterizing the plumming of a cabin. Just wondering 2 things:
1) Where is everyone from? I'm looking to build a cabin for occasional winter use in North West Ontario (LOTW region) so it will commonly be -30 Celsius.
2) The cabin would have to be lake drawn. What do you have to do to make that work in the winter?
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