Closing up your coastal property

English › Closing up your property

A house does not deteriorate from being used. It deteriorates from not being used. This is the list of what is worth leaving done before you fly home, and why each thing matters — written from what we actually find when owners come back.

The water. This is the one that matters

• Open the taps after closing the stopcock so the installation is left without pressure.
• Drain the water heater, or at least switch it off. A tank sitting hot for months with nobody drawing hot water only burns electricity and corrodes the sacrificial anode.
• If the property has a pressure set, switch it off at the board. There is no point leaving a pump under command all winter.

The drains, and the smell you are going to find

Under every waste there is a trap — that curve that holds a little water. That water is the only thing standing between your living room and the drainage system. Over months of no use it evaporates, and the smell comes straight up.

It is the number one complaint on opening a house after winter, and it is not a fault.

• Before you leave: pour a little cooking oil down each waste. It floats on the water in the trap and slows the evaporation right down.
• When you come back: run water through every drain, including the ones nobody ever uses — the spare bathroom, the utility sink, the floor gully on the terrace.

If it still smells after that, then it is worth looking at.

The pool

This is where most money gets lost by doing it wrong. The rule is simple: the treatment has to match the number of months the pool will be alone. Closing for two months and closing for six are two different jobs, and the green water people find in spring is almost always this and nothing else.

• Drop the level below the skimmers if you are winterising properly, and protect the waterline.
• Leave the filtration on a timer, even a few hours a day. A pool left completely still for months recovers far worse than one that kept moving.
• Cover it if you can. Less evaporation, less dirt, less product.

More on this on our swimming pools page.

The air conditioning

• Clean or change the filters before you go, not when you come back. A filter left dirty for six months in a closed house grows mould, and the first thing the unit does in June is blow it round the room.
• Rinse the outdoor unit with fresh water if you are near the sea. The salt deposited over months of standing still is what eats it. No pressure washer.
• Switch it off at the board if you will be away a long time.

More on this on our air conditioning page.

Electrical, and the rest

• Fridge: empty, switched off and with the door propped open. Closed and off, it grows mould.
• Blinds down. Less heat inside and it protects the window frames.
• Leave a local contact with someone you trust — a neighbour, the administrator, or whoever looks after the property — in case anyone needs to get in.

The list for coming back

1. Open the main stopcock slowly, with a tap open to purge the air.
2. Run every drain.
3. Switch the water heater on and give it time before anyone uses hot water.
4. Check the meter with everything closed. If it turns, something leaked while you were away — and you want to know that on day one, not on the bill.
5. Start the air conditioning and confirm it actually cools, not just that it starts.
6. Analyse the pool water before adding anything at all.

If you would rather not do any of it

That is exactly the opening-up and closing-down service we do, on the Costa Blanca, the Murcia coast and the Almería Levante. Access arranged with whoever you authorise, photographs before and after, a written report, and a fixed price agreed in advance.

See how we work with owners who are away, or call +34 657 068 444 — or send a WhatsApp, which works fine from abroad.