Water Leak Damage: Prevention And Repair

Water leak damage is insidious in how it can occur without your knowledge. It can happen at any time, anywhere, and in any place where water is flowing. That’s the dangerous part of plumbing: the damage it can cause to your home. And repairing some of that damage isn’t cheap, especially if it’s been sitting rather than being cleaned up.

Do you know some of the dangers of water damage? If it infiltrates your walls or floors, you can suffer serious damage like rotting, mold, and even worse! This is why it’s important to ensure that any leaking fixtures that might cause a problem are fixed and that you find any leaky pipes in your home.

Common Leaks And The Problems They Cause

First and foremost, check all the fixtures and areas around the fixtures you use the most. For instance, your showerheads, the faucet for the tub, sinks, the refrigerator (if you have a water line running into it) and any other major appliance you use on a regular basis. These are places that leaks can develop easily (and because we use them so often and associate them with water, we forget that they can leak). See if anything is wet where it shouldn’t be: walls, floors, and so forth.

Check all of the connections that you have access to, as well. Valves can go bad or be loose, and this can happen when they’re not checked (which happens all the time). When one of those guys goes bad, your floor and walls will pay for it dearly. Same goes for any connectors that are screwed on or can come loose at all. Rule of thumb: if your hands could put it on, it can come off just as easily.

Next, check your major appliances (like the dishwasher and the washing machine. These two are used often but because we don’t see the water nearly as much as we do with other, more open appliances and fixtures, we also forget that they can leak (until it’s far too late, anyway). Again, check the fittings, the valves, and the drains (in this case, a clogged drain can mean disaster) as often as you can!

Water Damage That Can Occur

Water damage is a large problem that can ruin your home, and if these leaks do happen to occur on a large scale (or you’ve missed them entirely) you run some major risks.

For instance, you might be aware of how mold forms: through water laying on the surfaces, infiltrating them, and providing an ideal growth medium. But were you aware of the dangers mold poses to you? Some species of mold can actually seriously hurt you (or even kill you)! Preventing your home from becoming a good medium for this growth is only one part of why you should prevent water damage.

If you have hardwood floors (or any kind of floor that can decompose, really), water damage can harm those floors structurally until you’re no longer able to walk on them. Most hardwood floors are treated to prevent this outcome, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. Be sure to get that water up if it spills or leaks out onto the floor!

There’s also another issue, even if the water damage doesn’t harm your home’s structure: it can lower your home’s value. If the water damage left visible marks, then you’ll need to fix the damage that it did to prevent any issues with your home.

Call Us For Assistance

As always, if you need any help cleaning up your water damage from any kind of leak or catastrophe, be sure to give us a call and we’ll be there as soon as we can to fix the problems that you’re having. Thanks, and we hope to hear from you soon!

Frequently Asked Questions