A leaky faucet may seem innocuous, but it’s something you should take seriously.
Not only is dripping water a reckless waste, it will cost you $20 – $200 every year it is not fixed.
Left unattended, leaky faucets and other water leaks can be a dangerous presence in your home. So, what can you do?
- Learn to identify water damage
- Understand the consequences of water damage
- Take action to resolve the damage
Let’s get started on making your home safer by addressing water damage.
Identify Water Damage
Identifying water damage can be easy, but it can also be difficult or impossible for the untrained eye. Sometimes it takes an expert. Here, we will focus on what you can do in your own home.
1. Leaks
Identifying this one is simple, but often ignored, and really annoying! If faucets in your home are dripping water, this is a sign of plumbing issues or water damage.
2. Discoloration
When you are looking for discoloration in your home, you should be looking for unnatural changes in color itself as well as color patterns. Key places to look for discoloration is on and around sinks, walls, and ceilings.
If white or light in color surfaces have yellow or brain stains, this is a sign of water damage.
3. Smelly and Damp Air
Have you noticed a bad smell in your home? Often, you will only notice the smell in one part of your home: wherever the leak is.
Perhaps when you’re sitting in the living room or in your bedroom, you feel like the air in that room is damp.
These are both signs of water damage and a variety of mold, including dangerous toxic mold.
4. Structural Damage
When your house is damaged by dripping water, you may see that your ceilings and walls cave a little. This means that the water (and mold – gross!) have infiltrated foundational structures in your home.
When it gets to this point, it means the damage is severe and that everything from your walls, roof, rafters, and insulation could be compromised.
5. Sitting water
Check for sitting water in your home. You can find sitting water around your sinks, toilets, pipes, gutters, and taps.
Just after rainfall, it is common for puddles and dampness to appear on the land around your home. However, if you notice these puddles and damp areas when there has not been rainfall, it is definitely a sign of water damage.
6. Electrical
Electrical damage associated with dripping water can include electricity moving through wooden floors or other surfaces in your house. This is dangerous. If you are experiencing shocks like this, call an electrician immediately.
7. Water Meter Reading
While reading your water meter does not let you know where a dripping water leak might be, it will clarify that the symptoms you are noticing around your house are associated with leaks.
To perform a water meter read, make sure anything that uses water is turned off. This means everything from sinks, dishwasher, clothes washer, shower and bath tubs, to hoses. All taps and appliances should be off.
Read your meter and take note. Wait one hour and read the meter again. If it is a different number, there is definitely a leak.
Understand the Consequences of Dripping Water
The consequences of dripping water and damage can be small to severe.
Often, people do not consider a small consequence a consequence because it’s annoying-but-not-inconveniencing and they don’t want to pay to fix it.
But then what happens is the consequence turns from small to severe, perhaps even life-threatening and so they have to fix it.
Do not wait to fix a small consequence. Not only will it save you a lot of grief, it will save you money.
A small consequence is a leaky faucet, small roof damage, or smelly air. It’s easy enough to ignore and that’s where the problem lies.
If left unaddressed, small consequences can overtake your home.
Sink replacements and extensive structural repair are results of a leaky faucet left unattended.
Destruction of belongings in your attic, shingle replacement, and extensive structural repair of your roof are results of going too long without a shingle replacement or cursory roof inspection.
A variety of molds, including toxic molds, can cause serious damage to you and your home if you don’t get a strange smell checked out.
Toxic molds can overtake your home, make people who live there sick, and in rare cases, make the house uninhabitable.
It’s impossible to plan for everything. Still, it’s important to try to plan for mundane consequences: when you can correctly identify this kind of water damage and pay to fix it, you’ll be better off.
Take Action to Resolve Water Damage
What is the right approach to begin resolving water damage?
First, do not assume you can fix it yourself! There is plenty of DIY and self-help information out there, but you should only attempt to resolve water damage if it’s something like a leaky faucet and you are confident you can do it yourself.
If there’s any question about your skill or the price of fixing it yourself, drop the toolkit and …
Second, pick up the phone to call a specialist.
Call a damage restoration expert first. Tell or show the expert the problems you are confident are associated with water damage. The expert will analyze each issue and confirm or deny your water damage concerns.
If it ends up not being water damage, they will suggest what other problems the symptoms are representative of.
If this is the case, this means calling other repair experts and perhaps a contractor.
Lastly, be proactive! Perhaps you had a water damage scare at a previous home, or you haven’t experienced one yet and are in the process of planning and saving for smaller consequences.
There are plenty of options for stopping extensive water damage before it happens.
We at Hero Response hope you found this article helpful! If you have any questions about water damage or property restoration, feel free to visit our website or contact us.