Water damage to your property is often blamed at severe weather such as melting snow or heavy rains. However, few people realize that water damage can also come from damaged or leaky appliances. These damages can sneak up if you aren’t too careful, whether from your fridge, toilet, or dishwasher.
Eventually, leaky appliances can cause significant damage, resulting from a slow drip or flooding. Something minor that could go unnoticed for a long time can cause structural damage. It also risks your home to mold growth.
This post will walk you through the seven tips for preventing water damage from leaky appliances.
Are you a Council or Housing association Tenant with housing disrepair issues?
If so we can help you claim compensation on a NO Win, NO Fee basis.
You have to be aware that every appliance is different. Thus, it needs a different schedule for routine maintenance.
Make sure you check the manual for every appliance and follow the recommendations regularly so your appliances can be inspected for the best performance.
In between inspections, ensure you keep an eye out for puddles of water under and around your appliance. Search for any dampness, mildew, or molds. Knowing these things will put you one step ahead of the water damage.
The water supply tubes should also be regularly checked. They can easily crack, disintegrate, or rupture behind appliances. If you want to decrease this likelihood, replace plastic tubing with stainless steel, that’s a lot more durable.
In the same way, you should also ensure a small stack on your water supply tube when you rest it behind appliances. Usually, too much tension can lead to connection problems and causes tub kink.
If there are broken pipes or significant water leaks, you must turn off the primary water supply to prevent damage. You should also know the location of the main shut-off valve. Otherwise, you may lose time trying to locate it.
Usually, you can find the shut-off valve near the water meter outside your house. You can also turn off the stopcock, the primary valve controlling your water supply.
If you’re going for an extended period, such as a long vacation, then make sure to shut off the water main when you’re away.
During trips, you may leave your property empty for days or weeks. Even just a small leak can eventually lead to significant damage by the time you come back. Turning off your water main whenever you’re away will prevent accidents from any unattended water flow on your property.
If your gutters are clogged, it won’t direct the water flow away from your use. As a result, the water will then spill over the sides of your walls and can cause leaks inside.
Any cracks in your house’s foundation or peeling paint can result from clogged cutters. If the water damage is severe, then this might even cause your foundation to collapse.
So, ensure your gutters are regularly cleaned to prevent them from getting clogged in the long run. Now, if you don’t have the time (or energy!) to clean gutters, have professionals in water damage restoration santee do it for you.
A flexible water tubing is excellent since it doesn’t rust or freeze. However, it does break, burst, crack and deteriorate. So you might consider replacing it with something sturdy, such as stainless steel tubes with longer lifespans.
Also, if the appliance is too far away, the line eventually becomes too taut, which has difficulty pulling water in.
On the other hand, if your appliance is pushed close to the wall, there’s a tendency for the line to kink. So, ensure that you aim for something right in the middle, providing the right amount of slack.
It’s often easy to put off upgrades for your appliances. After all, upgrading can cost you money.
But failing to replace your appliances whenever the time is right causes you to experience water damage disaster, which eventually leads to a costly cleanup in the long run.
Regular upgrades to your appliances when they’re due are one of the essential elements to prevent water damage. It’s understandable to put this off because these things aren’t cheap.
However, it’s better to get a new appliance that works well when the time is right instead of risking water damage from an appliance that’s already old and worn out.
A water leak detection system will alert you of any possible leaks in your home. What it does is it monitors the water flow in your pipes.
The system could also detect any minor leaks that could be difficult to spot. When the system detects any unusual changes in the water flow, it will send off an alarm.
Similarly, some systems have automatic shut-off devices tailored to decrease water loss. Meanwhile, others have flow interrupters that interrupt the water flow whenever it detects a leak.
So, there you have it. Taking the proper preventive measures to reduce or even prevent the possibility of water damage is essential. It would help if you controlled these during the beginning stages. While some steps will require you to invest significant time and money, this will eventually pay off in the long run. Good luck!
info@housing-disrepair.org
0333 050 8887
