What a Cottage Closing Service Includes

What does a cottage closing service include? The water comes out first. The main is shut off. Every line is drained, then blown out with air. The hot water tank is emptied, and the drain traps get RV antifreeze. Then the power and heat are set for winter, the food and valuables go home, and the doors are locked. A waterfront closing adds the dock. A good one ends with dated photos of each step. What it doesn't include is the winter itself.

Two quotes can both say "winterize cottage" and cover different jobs. Read each one for four things. Which water lines. Who does the dock. How long the crew is on site. What you get back on paper.

A Saturday in April, and a quote that said "drain lines"

Picture a chalet outside Collingwood, closed last fall. It's a Saturday morning in April. You turn the water back on. The pressure tank fills. Then the kitchen floor goes dark under the dishwasher.

Nobody ran the dishwasher at the closing. Its supply line held water all winter. The quote said "drain lines." It never said which ones.

Ratehub's winterizing checklist names the step: run the dishwasher and the ice maker so their supply lines are emptied. Even after a thorough drain, some water can remain. Compressed air pushes it out. A good closing quote names the appliances. A vague one names the house.

The water work, line by line

Water is where a closing earns its price. The plumbing part of a closing runs in this order. Ask anyone quoting you which of these they do.

• Shut off the supply. On a well, that means cutting power to the pump. On a lake intake, the gear comes out of the water and inside for winter.
• Open every tap, top floor down. Ratehub says to leave the faucets open for the season, so nothing left behind can build pressure as it freezes.
• Empty the toilets. Hold the flapper open until the tank drains. A shop vacuum gets the last of the bowl.
• Blow out the lines. An air compressor goes on the lowest faucet in the house and pushes out what gravity missed.
• Run the appliances dry. The dishwasher and the ice maker each have their own supply line.
• Empty both tanks. The pressure tank and the hot water tank both drain. The line from the pump to the cottage gets air too.
• Protect the traps. Ratehub's figure is a cup of antifreeze in each drain. Use RV antifreeze, which is rated for potable water.

One order matters more than the rest. Western Financial Group's checklist says to drain the hot water tank after the power has been turned off. Ask the crew which comes first.

Want to do it yourself? Our Ontario cottage closing checklist has the steps and the timing. This post is for the owner reading a quote instead.

Power, heat and the building

The rest of a closing is the building. Western Financial Group's list starts with the breakers: turn off the individual breakers, then the main switch. That spares the appliances a surge when the power comes back in spring.

Then the food. All of it goes, canned food included, because cans can freeze and split. The fridge is defrosted, unplugged and propped open. Beds are stripped. Firearms and alcohol don't stay. Outboards and generators are locked up or taken home.

Heat on or heat off? Decide before the crew arrives, not during the visit. Your policy may decide it for you. Read the clause, or ask your broker.

Western's list also says the chimney and the wood stove should be cleaned before you leave. That's a chimney sweep's job. If a closing quote lists it, ask who is doing the sweeping.

Time on site tells you what the quote covers

Here's a check worth running. Ask how long the crew will be there, and how many people. Then hold that against the property.

We publish ours. Our cottage opening and closing service runs the same 40-point checklist on every closing, with photo documentation. The time and crew change with the building.

So read a waterfront quote that sends one person for a short visit. Is the dock in it? Ask. Our dock removal is inside the Waterfront + Dock tier, and that tier is two people for four to six hours. Our dock installation and removal page covers the dock work itself.

A caveat on our own table. Those are our times for our checklist. Our quotes also move with the size and condition of the property. What the hours do tell you is whether a line on the quote fits in the visit.

What a closing does not include

Count the calls a closing leaves for you. The septic truck, if you have a holding tank: Ratehub says to book a final pump-out after the last flush of the season. The chimney sweep. The propane fill. The laneway in January. That's four more calls and four more invoices.

Then the winter. A closing is one visit. On the day the crew leaves, the lines are empty and the doors are locked. What happens in February, nobody knows unless something is watching.

That part is a cottage monitoring system job, not a closing job. A ChaletGuard sensor raises a freeze alert at 5°C. We call you within 15 minutes, then we call a local contractor. It costs $59 a month, plus a $599 sensor installation.

Will the closing photos satisfy your insurer? That's not ours to say. It depends on your policy. What we hand over is the photo documentation from the closing and, with monitoring, a continuous temperature record. The clause is your broker's to read. We are not insurance advisors.

Six questions to ask before you sign

• Which lines get air? A good answer names the dishwasher, the ice maker and the line from the pump.
• Is the power off before the hot water tank drains? One word answers it: yes.
• Is the dock in the price? If it is, the time on site should show it.
• How long, and how many people? Hold the answer against the size of the place.
• What comes back to you? Dated photos of each step, or one line on an invoice?
• Is the spring opening priced with it? We take 10% off when you book the opening and the closing together.

Book the closing before the cold does

Aim to have the closing done before the first hard frost. Our week-by-week closing timeline covers when to book and what to do first. Can you make the drive up before it? Then do the water yourself. Can't? Hand it over.

Every tier is on our cottage care pricing page, in Canadian dollars, with 13% HST on top. Watch + Care and Full Service clients take 15% off. If your place is near Collingwood, our page on cottage care in Collingwood covers the area. Not sure which tier fits? Call (437) 595-6275 and ask.

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