Home Care - Winterizing a Bathroom

Vince Clingenpeel: Hi, I am Vince Clingenpeel; we are taking about winterizing your home or preparing it for an extended absence. Now we are in the bathroom, we got to talk about a few things you need to consider. Now we are over to the main water vault. Shutting it off can be as easy as that, if you carry 0:22 . This little middle nut, is used to drain the water above the vault. Below the vault, pressure from the stream is still alive. You got to remember to be able to drain this water out. You can do that from the meter outside or you might need to get a plumber to help you put an exterior vault shut off and provides you with a way to drain this section right here. We have turned water off, the main vault is off, all the faucets are on, we are trying to drain the system. But there are a few things that need to be done in the mean time. The toilets off, you want to flush it. What that does, it start dropping the water level down in the tank. The tank has to be completely empty. You can cup it out, you could sponge it out. I have a nice little pump here. You can buy at almost any hardware store, attach this your drill. So when we pumped all the water out of the tank and we wiped it dry.

Now, we are going to dry the bowl using the same pump, we are going to get all water out of this in here. So your tank is empty and it s dry, you have emptied your bowl. You can t leave your bowl empty like it is now. This is now a three inch hole to the sewer system. There is gases and things coming out of here. This is actually your water trap in the bowl. So you take your mixture of anti-freeze, 50-50 with water and you have to be sure that you fill it up just enough to seal the hole, you are not going to need any more than that. Now, we are talking about the tub, under the floor this is your typical 2 inch drain in a shower or a tub, this holds about 2 cups of water all of the time. That s your trap, the trap holds the water that traps the gases back from entering in the house. So you have to remember to get an anti-freeze mixture in here. If you got 2 cups, you need to displace it with 1 cup of anti freeze. So first thing to do, is take the stopper out. Funnels are handy items, it s a transmission funnel, get it from any hard store. If you have sensitive skin you might want to put on some latex gloves to protect your hands. Then next place we are doing is the sink. This is the trap, it s in the sink, smaller than the tub obviously, so one and a quarter, one and a half inch trap. This holds only about a cup of water. So, you are going to only need to put about a half a cup of full strength antifreeze. If you are using the 50-50, remember to put in a full cup to displace all the original water. One thing you want to remember is after you have opened the vault, take your aerator off and set it aside. When you power up this room again and the water flows you don t want to clog up your aerator, it s a good chance to flush your system. Then all you need to do is this edger antifreeze. That will run on down in there. A damp cloth is always handy to wipe up any spillage, try to avoid any stains that might be left. Then you look in the medicine cabinet and in the vanity, you are looking for liquids that might freeze, perfumes, oils, toothpaste any stuff like that, you want to remember to pack that stuff up to take it with you. You don t want it to freeze, it will be useless when you come back. Now let s go and talk about the kitchen.