Winterising your Mallorca holiday home
Pipes rarely freeze in a Mallorca winter. The real risk is damp, and before that come the autumn rains. If you leave in October and come back in April, plan for both. What to do before you go, and what a checklist on its own cannot do.
The real risk
Damp, not frost
In northern Europe, winterising a house mostly means draining the pipes so nothing freezes. In Mallorca, frost on the coast is the exception. The bigger problem for an empty house is damp. A closed house cools down, the humid winter air condenses on cold walls, and after a few weeks mattresses, upholstery and wardrobes smell musty.
Old stone houses and fincas with thick walls are most affected, along with basement rooms and anything that sits behind closed shutters for months without fresh air. Mould does not appear overnight; it grows quietly over the winter.
Before the autumn rain
Roof, gutters and drains first
Autumn rain in Mallorca often arrives as a downpour. Whether the water runs off or collects on the terrace and gets into the house depends on the gutters, downpipes, terrace drains and soakaways. Leaves and pine needles clog them over the year. Clear them by early October at the latest, ideally in September: the first autumn storms often come sooner than expected.
Check the roof for slipped tiles, and secure garden furniture and parasols before a winter storm blows them across the garden. On a finca, the cistern needs attention too: clear the gutter and filter that feed it and, where there is a diverter, let the first rain run past the inlet, as it washes a summer of dust off the roof. Afterwards someone has to switch it back to the cistern, or the winter’s rain will run past it.
Water and power
Water off, but not everything off
Turn off the water to the house before a long absence. Otherwise a leaking connection does weeks of damage that nobody notices. If the irrigation or the pool top-up runs off the same main stopcock, the house needs its own shut-off downstream of the branch, fitted beforehand by a plumber. Then you turn off only the house, and the garden keeps getting water. If the water comes from a cistern or well, the same applies downstream of the pressure tank: shut off only the supply to the house, or a leak will pump the cistern dry. If nothing on the pressure tank needs to keep running, you can also switch the pump off at its breaker.
Switch off the electric water heater, known locally as the termo, at the fuse box. Empty the fridge, switch it off and leave the door open, or mould will grow inside. Turn off the gas at the butane bottle, the propane tank or the main gas valve, unless a gas boiler is keeping the house frost-free. Cutting the power completely, on the other hand, is rarely a good idea: the alarm, a dehumidifier, the pool system and the irrigation all need it.
Frost-prone spots need one more step. Inland and in valley bottoms there are occasional nights below zero, in the higher parts of the Tramuntana more often. Drain exposed pipes and outside taps there before winter.
Inside
Let the air move
What helps most against damp is ventilation. Leave interior and wardrobe doors slightly open. Mattresses and upholstery need air on all sides: a sheet keeps the dust off, a plastic cover traps the moisture. Air the house on dry, ideally breezy days, not when warm, humid air would condense on the cold walls.
A dehumidifier whose hose runs downhill into a drain keeps running without needing to be emptied, as long as there is power. Make sure it restarts by itself after a power cut. In cold, unheated rooms, desiccant dehumidifiers work better than compressor models. The most important thing cannot be done before you leave, though: someone checking on the house over the winter.
Before you go
Checklist before you leave
The pool has its own guide: Winterising your pool.
- ✓Clear gutters, downpipes, terrace drains and soakaways
- ✓Check the roof for slipped tiles, secure garden furniture and parasols
- ✓Turn off the water to the house; with a cistern or well, downstream of the pressure tank
- ✓With a cistern: clear the feed and filter, have the diverter switched back after the first rain
- ✓In frost-prone spots: drain outside pipes and taps
- ✓Switch off the water heater and the fridge, empty the fridge and leave it open
- ✓Turn off the gas, unless a gas boiler is keeping the house frost-free
- ✓Leave interior and wardrobe doors slightly open, do not wrap textiles in plastic
- ✓Run the dehumidifier’s hose downhill into a drain
- ✓Put the plugs in sinks, basins and showers, except the one the dehumidifier drains into; close the toilet lids; have the traps topped up at each inspection
- ✓Never switch the pool off or drain it; reduce run times only as the water cools
- ✓Clear out food and rubbish, have the post collected regularly
- ✓Set the alarm, leave keys and emergency numbers with someone local you can reach
Over the winter
What a checklist cannot do
The list gets the house ready. It does not stop a storm from shifting tiles, a tripped RCD from switching off the dehumidifier, or a downpipe from blocking again in November. Only someone who looks in will notice.
Check your insurance too: many policies cover a house left empty for long periods only if conditions are met, such as the water being turned off or regular inspections. Your policy sets out what applies to you.
We inspect the houses we look after fortnightly or weekly, depending on the package, against a fixed list: technical systems, damp, windows and shutters, pool, grounds. A blocked gutter is cleared on the spot, and the report with photos arrives on the first of every month. What happens in an emergency is set out in the emergency process.
What owners ask about this
Do I need to heat the house in winter?
Not against frost, at least on the coast. For damp, a dehumidifier and airing on dry days do the work. Low background heat helps but is no substitute for ventilation. In frost-prone spots inland and in the Tramuntana it can make sense where the pipes cannot be drained.
Should I switch the power off completely?
Usually not. The alarm, a dehumidifier, the pool system and the irrigation need power. What nobody uses over the winter, such as the water heater, can be switched off at the fuse box.
Is it enough to winterise the house in October and come back in April?
Not for a house nobody sees in between. Drains blocked after a storm, a dehumidifier that has stopped or a leak only come to light when you arrive. If you cannot come yourself, you need someone who checks on it regularly.
Not on the island over the winter? We check on your house and send you a report with photos every month.
Enquire, no obligation