Turning on water after house vacant 1.5 years

[marcva]

My in laws house has been vacant about 1.5 years, and the water has been turned off. The house is a town house that was probably built in the 1980s. I realize that this is probably causing all sorts of problems with different seals drying up that will be problematic when I turn the water back on.

Question: Are there seals that will be problematic? Toilet seals? etc?

How long can a plumbing system be idle without causing problems? I'd rather have it drained since we don't get over there often (every couple months to check on things) but also don't want to do too much damage to the system.

 

[frodo]

turn it on and look at it.

remove aeraters, let run, to get stagnat out. empty the water in the water heater

i would, turn off valve at wh tank. disconnect cold line at heater. pour 1 cap full of bleach for every 5 gallons

8 tablspoons bleach into the water heater...let it sit for 30 minutes.

flush it. hook a hose up and let it fill, then drain , couple times
then just let the hot water run thru out the house couple of hours

after you flush it. take a sample to the health department lab. before drinking

better to be safe than sorry. water been sitting in that wh for 1.5 years


THEN, leave the water on, if you can, use it 1 time a month.
replace the water in that tank at LEAST 1 time a month, to keep germs out