When the visits happen
An opening waits for the weather, not the calendar. The water system goes back on once there is no longer a hard frost to split a line that has just been filled; on a lake-intake system that also means the water around the intake is open. A closing is the reverse: it has to be done before the first nights cold enough to freeze water standing in a pipe, and well before the laneway might be blocked by snow. Between those two edges there is room to plan, and we plan both visits with you when you reserve, so a cottage closed on our schedule is not left waiting for a free day in the first cold week.
What winterization means here
Winterizing is making sure no water is left anywhere it can freeze and split something. That means the supply shut off at the main, the pump and pressure tank drained, every line opened and emptied, the water heater turned off and drained, and the traps and toilets protected with non-toxic plumbing antifreeze so their water seals cannot freeze. A cottage that stays heated all winter is handled differently: the water stays on, the heat is set where your policy wording asks, and the checks on our winter checks page take over from there.
Order matters
Much of the damage at an opening comes from doing the right things in the wrong order. An electric water heater switched on before it is full burns out its elements; a pump started against closed valves or a frozen line can damage itself; a line pressurised before the drain valves are shut floods a crawl space. Our checklist runs in the order the systems need, and nothing is switched on until the thing it feeds is ready for it.
Licensed and registered work
We do the opening and closing work ourselves. Anything that needs a licence or registration goes to someone who holds one: gas, propane and oil appliances to a TSSA-registered contractor, wiring to a Licensed Electrical Contractor, plumbing repairs to a certified plumber, and septic work to a septic contractor. The Technical Standards and Safety Authority encourages owners to have fuel-burning appliances inspected every year and leaves it to the owner to ask; we can book that inspection into your opening. Every one of those trades is named in a written quote before the work starts.
What to send us before the first visit
Where the main water shut-off and the drain valves are, what pumps and heats the water, how the cottage is heated, where the panel is, who holds keys, and anything that went wrong last season. Photos help. With that, the first opening is a checklist rather than a search.