Water Damage Prevention - Take a Water Damage Audit
While we often think of water as one
of life’s essential elements, there are times in life where we come face to
face with water as a destructive force.
Perhaps you encounter it in a hurricane or typhoon; in a tsunami or a
flash flood. Sometimes, we
encounter the negative power of H2O through an act of our own stupidity such
as forgetting to turn off the tap, letting pipes rust or freeze in cold
weather. Regardless of whether
you rent or own your own home, you should spend a little time preparing
yourself against the simplest forms of water damage.
Let’s face it, if Hurricane Katrina comes roaring down your
neighborhood, no amount of preparation is going to be enough to stop the
damage from flooding. Of course
that’s why we have home insurance and sometimes flood insurance to cover
those acts of God. But that leak
from the attic or the slow accumulation of moisture against your window
panes is something you can deal with proactively.
So in the interest of being pro-active about water damage,
why don’t you take some time on a Sunday before the football game to perform
a water damage audit on your home?
A Water Damage
Audit
Step 1.
Attic and Basement.
Check both the attic and the basement.
In the attic you are looking for signs of discoloration where water
might be coming in through the roof.
Remember it doesn’t have to be a river of water, even a slow drip
drip drip can cause great damage over time. Your ductwork should be dry and
intact and free of wetness and stains. Remember to look at your gutter
system and make sure there are no blockages or poorly hanging gutters to
result in regular drips or overflow into or around your home.
In the basement you will be looking
for signs of dampness or water flow through the concrete or rock foundation.
If you have some doubt, you can try the old scotch tape trick.
Attach a strip of scotch tape over a suspected leak and leave
overnight. In the morning, do
you see dampness or condensation on the adhesive side of the tape?
It strongly suggests that moisture if coming in through your
foundation. Remember even a
small amount of moisture can be destructive, promote the growth of illness
inducing mold and wear away the value of your home.
Never leave a leak in your walls, better to find it and deal with it
as soon as you find it.
Step 2.
Appliances.
Go through your house and look at all your appliances that use water
on a regular basis for signs of wear & tear and water compromise.
The big ones to consider are under every faucet, toilet, and bathtub;
washing machines, dishwashers, air conditioners, and water heaters. You
should also take a good look at places where any major pipes are exposed.
Look for signs of discoloration or
warping; dampness or softness on the walls or floor around the fixture.
Wood will often show water damage quite readily in the buckling of
the plane or in peeling paint.
Step 3.
Check your Water Meter.
You can have a leaky pipe in your home or outside your home and it
can cost you an arm and a leg in water bills before you ever see the damage
to your home. Do you hear
running water at night for no reason?
Check your water meter and wait for 20 minutes.
Make sure not to use any water during this time.
At the end of 20 minutes see if the numbers on your water meter
indicate any usage. If it does,
you might have a leak you need to look into.
For those of you living in the country and relying on well-water,
listen to the water pump. Does
it come on at strange hours and run longer than you think it should?
Perhaps you have a leak in all the piping running in or outside your
house. Tree roots can be a
notorious culprit, crimping pipes and producing leaks.
I’ve fixed my share of those.
Step 4.
The Sniff Test.
Finally, go around your home smelling for
a telling moldy or rank smell, this can sometimes be the fastest indicator
of water damage. Be sure to ask
your family or roommates if they know of any part of the house that smells
moldy too. I once had a
persistent moldy smell in my office that I ignored for far too long.
I assumed that it was a periodic leak from outside when it rained too
much. Then one day, I actually
suffered flood damage from a flash flood and had the baseboards ripped out
all over my first floor to fix the damage.
Sure enough, in my office there was a moldy wall where a small leak
had done its damage over time.
But it didn’t come from the outside wall.
It came from the inside wall next to the laundry room where a pipe
had been leaking! Lucky for me this turned out to be the only part of the
water damage that my regular home insurance paid for (home insurance doesn’t
typically cover the cost of damage from outside water that is what flood
insurance is for). So if you
smell that nasty smell of mold in your home, don’t ignore it like I did.
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