If you are a homeowner, you may live in fear of home water damage. Water may be essential for life as we know it but it can be deadly to certain parts of a house. Water damage is responsible for 20% of all home insurance claims in the United States. If you have a moist environment, such what you have with a water leak, you can have mold within 24 to 48 hours. This is what you need to know about water leak repair:
- Keep your outdoor pipes warm by wrapping them. When cold water pipes reach the outside, any water that is in the pipes when the temperature drops to below freezing will freeze. Water expands when it freezes. This is how people’s pipes burst. There are two ways to prevent this. You can make sure your pipes are well insulated so that the pipes never get cold enough for the water to freeze. You can also leave your faucets open so the water is moving, it cannot freeze when it is moving. The best thing is to insulate the pipes. By preventing the pipes from bursting, you prevent the need for water leak repair.
- Inspect your pipes from times to time. A good habit to get into is to walk through your home on a regular basis and look at the pipes that you can see. If you see any dripping or notice moisture on the floor, you have a leak. Often homeowners are busy and they do not check their pipes and are caught off guard by a huge puddle that they think has suddenly appeared out of no where when it has been slowly growing over weeks and weeks. Check the pipes for signs of rust, drops of water or buckling. That is when you know you need some water leak repair. One problem with not paying attention is that once the basement is full of moisture from a leak, you start to get mold. Then you need a pricey mold removal. Mold cleanup is expensive but necessary. Mold is dangerous.
- Watch your water heater. Unfortunately, if your water heater is leaking, you will need a new water heater. There is no water leak repair job that will help you here. The reason is simple. As water heaters age, the lining starts to be worn away. Once it has totally won away, the base begins to leak. Your best bet at this point is to see if your unit is still covered under the manufacturer’s warranty. When you get a new water heater, if you can, install a pan underneath it.
- Replace your o-rings and washers. If you find o-rings or washers that are worn, replace it as soon as you can. It is infinitely cheaper to replace one of these things than to get a new fixture. This cannot be stressed enough. Some people think they can get away with leaving it but it really is not worth it.
- Your faucet will leak at some point. It is as inevitable as death and taxes, your faucets will leak at some point. If you still have the faucets that were in your home when you moved in, they may be closer to that point than you think. At some point, your faucets are going to get so corroded that replacing them will be cheaper than fixing them.
- If your shower spout drips, check the washer and seat inside it. All you need to do take the shower spout apart, replace the broken or worn out washer and put it back together. If that does not fix the problem, you may just need to replace it. Sometimes water leak repair means replacing a fixture.
Water damage or sitting water in a home can be very bad. It would be hard to overstate how bad mold is for you. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has isolated thousands of kinds of mold and none of them are good for people’s health. If you have to deal with mold remediation and removal California, you will not like the experience. A big part of fixing leaks is preventing them. Paying attention to your plumbing is the place to start.
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