Most homecoming surprises announce themselves quickly if you know to look. A wet patch in the basement. A faint sewage smell. The thermostat reading much warmer or cooler than expected. The fridge feeling off-temperature. The first walkthrough after a trip is the cheapest insurance against an undetected problem that's been growing while you were gone.
The 15-minute return walkthrough
- Walk the exterior perimeter before you go inside. Look for standing water, signs of forced entry, damaged siding, fallen branches, sagging gutters.
- Open the door and sniff. Gas smell, sewage smell, musty smell, or burning electrical smell each mean different things and all mean stop.
- Check the lowest point in the house first (basement, crawl space, lowest floor) for water.
- Look under every sink and at the base of the water heater for drips.
- Check the fridge and freezer for power and temperature.
- Look at the thermostat reading vs the setpoint.
- Walk past every plumbing fixture and listen for running water.
- Check that every smoke and CO alarm is still chirping at normal status.
Smells that mean stop right now
- Gas (rotten egg / sulfur). Don't flip any switches. Leave the house and call the gas utility from outside.
- Burning electrical or melted plastic. Cut power at the main panel if you can do it safely, then call an electrician. Don't keep using the house until the source is found.
- Sewage smell indoors. Could mean a dry P-trap (run water at all fixtures for a minute and the smell often clears) or a real plumbing problem. If it persists after running water, call a plumber.
- Strong musty / mildew smell. Water has been somewhere it shouldn't be. Track the source. Could be a slow leak under a sink, a roof leak, or HVAC condensate that backed up.
- Skunky smell with no skunk around. Sometimes that's gas. Treat it like gas until you've ruled it out.
Turning the water back on
If you shut off the main water before leaving, turn it back on slowly. The reason: opening the valve fast can send a pressure surge through the system and stress old fittings, supply lines, and washing machine hoses.
- Open a faucet in the highest room (often an upstairs bathroom) before turning on the main. This lets air out and prevents banging pipes.
- Turn the main valve on slowly. Listen for water moving and any unusual hissing.
- Let the upstairs faucet run until water comes out cleanly without sputtering, then close it.
- Open hot taps next to refill the water heater (if you shut it off too).
- Check every fixture and the area around the washing machine, water heater, and any visible plumbing for new leaks.
- Wait 30 minutes and check again. Some leaks only show up after the system has been pressurized for a bit.
If the water heater was off
- Confirm the tank is full (a hot tap somewhere in the house should run with no sputtering) before turning it back on. Turning power on to an empty electric tank can burn out the heating elements.
- For gas: turn the gas back on at the supply, then the gas control on the tank, then follow the lighting instructions on the cabinet.
- For electric: flip the breaker back on.
- Allow 30 to 60 minutes for the tank to reach setpoint before expecting hot water.
HVAC and indoor air
- Reset the thermostat to your normal setpoint.
- Replace the HVAC filter if you didn't before leaving (or if you've been gone more than a month).
- Open windows for an hour if weather allows. Houses sealed up for a week or more accumulate stale air.
- If you have a mini-split or central AC, run the cooling for at least an hour to dry out any humidity that built up.
Fridge and freezer
- Open both compartments. The fridge should be cold, the freezer hard-frozen.
- If you left the "quarter on frozen water" trick: a quarter at the bottom or middle of the ice means power was off long enough for the freezer to thaw. Throw out everything in the freezer, including ice cubes.
- If everything is still cold but you're not sure how long power was out, look at the freezer for any signs of refreeze (ice cream that's now hard but lumpy, frozen vegetables that have clumped together).
- Turn the ice maker back on if you shut it off.
Outdoor and yard
- Walk the perimeter again, this time slowly. Check for signs of pests (gnaw marks, droppings, nests).
- Check that the dryer vent flap on the exterior wall isn't blocked.
- If you have an outdoor faucet, check it isn't dripping.
- Look at the AC condenser for debris that may have blown in.
- Pull weeds growing into the AC condenser fins (any growth taller than a few inches reduces airflow).
Mail and packages
- Restart mail delivery if you had a hold.
- Sort through what arrived and check for anything time-sensitive.
- Reset any package delivery services or grocery deliveries you paused.
If something is wrong
- Water on the floor: stop the source first (shut off the main again), document with photos, then call a plumber. Don't move wet contents until you've photographed.
- Power was out: check the fridge and freezer for spoilage, check that home electronics powered back up normally, look for tripped GFCI outlets.
- Burglary signs: don't go in. Call the police and wait outside.
- Smell of gas: leave the house, call the gas utility.
- Mold visible: stop and document. Mild surface mold can be cleaned per EPA guidance. Anything larger than 10 square feet warrants a remediation professional.
Good maintenance rhythm
- After every trip longer than 3 days: 15-minute return walkthrough.
- After every trip longer than 1 week: full plumbing-pressure check after restoring water.
- Yearly: practice the walkthrough mentally even when you haven't been gone. The same checks catch slow problems that develop in plain sight.
- Every trip: take "after" photos to compare with "before" photos from the pre-vacation checklist.
- Keep one trusted neighbor's contact updated. The walkthrough sometimes turns up things they should have called you about.