Your first winter with a cottage: what nobody tells you
Updated
You signed at the notary’s in the spring, had a perfect summer by the lake or at the foot of the mountain, and now fall is coming. The seller left you the keys, a heat-pump manual and the number of a snow-clearing guy “who used to do it for him.”
A cottage’s first winter rarely looks like what you pictured. Not because the house is bad, but because nobody passed on the habits that got it through winter.
What nobody tells you
Snow clearing isn’t automatic
The previous owner’s contract doesn’t always carry over. If your road is private, the municipality may not maintain it: check with the town and your neighbours. A steep driveway in Sutton or Potton needs an equipped contractor, and their spots fill up early.
The propane truck has to get up the hill
Automatic delivery exists, but it assumes clear access to the tank. An account in your name, a delivery agreement and a cleared driveway: three things to sort out before the first big snowfall.
You probably don’t know where the main shut-off is
Or whether it closes properly. Find it now, label it, turn it once. Do the same with the electrical panel: which breakers feed the heating, the water heater, the well pump?
The thermostat can’t see the basement
A cottage built in stages often has corners much colder than the thermostat’s room: an addition, a crawl space, a bathroom on an exposed wall. The first winter is when you find them. A thermometer left in the coldest room helps a lot.
Outages last longer than in the city
On a wooded road, freezing rain and heavy snow bring branches down on the lines. Hydro-Québec posts outages on its outage map, but it’s up to you to know whether your heat came back on when the power did.
Snow on the roof is worth watching
Ice dams at the eaves, icicles over the door, very uneven snow after a windstorm: you can see all of it from the ground. Clearing a roof, though, is a job for an equipped contractor.
The well and septic have their own habits
Where’s the septic tank lid? When was it last pumped? Does the well have a pressure tank in the basement? Ask the seller, look at the municipality’s records and write it all down.
Mice arrive with the cold
A quiet, heated cottage with a well-stocked pantry is ideal shelter. New owners often discover them after the holidays.
Your insurer needs to know it’s a second home
A second home isn’t always insured the same way as a principal residence, and many policies set conditions when the house is left empty in winter. Those conditions vary from one insurer to the next. Call your broker, describe how you plan to use the cottage, and ask what’s expected of you.
The decisions to make before the first snow
Closed or heated? A closed cottage needs the plumbing fully drained by a plumber and antifreeze in the traps. A heated cottage needs reliable heat, a cleared driveway and visits. There’s no one right answer: it depends on the house, how you use it and what your policy says.
Who goes inside, and how often? A neighbour, a relative, a caretaking service: what matters is that it’s agreed and regular. It isn’t about distrusting the house; it’s that the house can’t call you.
Who do you call when something’s wrong? A plumber, an electrician and a snow-clearing contractor you’ve already spoken to beat three names found in a panic on a Sunday.
Want a second pair of eyes? Our free pre-winter audit is exactly for that: we look at your situation with you, and you leave with a clear list of what needs attention before winter, even if you never become a client.
What you can do, and what belongs to the trades
What an owner can do:
- Find and label the main shut-off, the panel and the key breakers.
- Sign up for snow clearing and a fuel contract.
- Put a thermometer in the coldest room.
- Gather the information on the well and septic system.
- Call your broker to clarify the policy’s conditions.
What belongs to licensed trades:
- Having the plumbing and the insulation of cold corners assessed (RBQ-licensed plumber).
- Having the panel and electric heating assessed (master electrician).
- Servicing the heating system.
- Pumping the septic tank (specialized company).
- Clearing the roof if needed (equipped contractor).
You can check a contractor’s licence in the Régie du bâtiment du Québec registry.
In an empty house, how long before anyone notices?
In the first winter, you don’t know your house’s signals yet. You don’t know what the pump sounds like, or what the basement looks like when everything’s fine. So a problem can go unnoticed even when you’re there — and all the more when you’re back in Montréal.
How often someone stops by sets the maximum length of any damage. Regular, documented visits also give you a baseline: you know what the house looked like the time before.
What we look at on a visit
Every visit, we read the thermostat and compare it with the agreed setting, read the propane or oil tank gauge, check the position of the main shut-off, look at the snow and ice along the roof edge from the ground, check that the driveway is cleared and passable, and look for mouse droppings in the kitchen and along the baseboards. Every finding is photographed and time-stamped in the report.
If something’s off, we call you the same day, with photos. If needed, we meet an RBQ-licensed tradesperson on site and document the work.