Opening a cottage properly
Water systems, freeze damage, docks and the order of operations for the first weekend of the season.
6 min read
In this guide
- Before the water goes on
- Then bring the water up slowly
- The building envelope
- Docks, shoreline and access
- Keep the record
The first weekend of the season is where most avoidable damage of the year happens. Not because opening a cottage is difficult, but because it is done in the wrong order — water on before the building has been checked, docks in before the shoreline has been read, and a list of small problems discovered after the trades have booked out for a month.
Before the water goes on
Walk the interior first, with the water still off. Look for the evidence of the winter you just had: staining under windows, a ceiling line that has moved, a floor that feels soft near the door, rodent sign in the insulation. If a pipe has split, you want to find it before it is under pressure.
Then check the mechanical room. Filters, UV bulbs, pressure tank, the condition of the line coming in from the lake. Anything that was drained in the fall gets checked before it is refilled.
Then bring the water up slowly
Open the supply and let the system fill before switching the pump on. Walk the house while it fills. The point is to be standing at the fixture when a problem reveals itself rather than discovering it from the dock an hour later.
If you use a water treatment system, this is the moment to replace filters and sanitise the lines — before anyone drinks from them, not after the first weekend of guests.
The building envelope
Exterior checks come next: the roof from the ground with binoculars, gutters, caulking around windows and doors, and the condition of any siding that faces the prevailing weather. Cedar that has gone grey and dry is telling you it needs a re-coat, and it is far cheaper to do that in May than to replace boards in September.
Look at the transition points — where the deck meets the wall, where the chimney meets the roof, where the foundation meets the ground. That is where water gets in.
Docks, shoreline and access
Dock sections go back in once the water level has settled, and the hardware gets inspected at the same time — a cleat that has pulled, a bracket that has corroded, a floater that has taken on water. Shoreline structures take the most load of anything on the property and are the least often inspected.
Access roads and driveways deserve the same attention. A culvert that has washed out in April becomes a problem when a delivery truck arrives in June.
Keep the record
The single most useful thing an owner can keep is a written log: what was checked, what was found, what was fixed and by whom. It turns a seasonal scramble into a maintained asset, and it is the difference between a contractor quoting blind and quoting from a file.
Our cottage care visits produce exactly that — a short written condition report after every visit, kept against the property so the next person who works on it knows what they are walking into.
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