5 Smart Ways to Prevent Water Damage from Destroying Your Home

5 Smart Ways to Prevent Water Damage from Destroying Your Home

Water damage in your house can be nasty, not just because of the clean-up you need to put yourself through, but also the basic insurance policy you probably have just might not cover all the damage costs.

The best way to deal with water damage in your home is to try and do your best to prevent it. Here are some tips and hints on what you can do to be a step ahead.

Monitor the Water Bill

Your water bill is a pretty reliable marker that something might be wrong with your water system and that you should do a thorough professional check-up. Pipes in your walls or floors might be broken or you might be dealingwith a slab leak somewhere in your house.

You will probably see the damage when it’s too late to prevent it. The thing with leaks is that they can be slow and stealthy and you probably won’t even notice there’s something wrongright away.

The most valid indicator that something is going on is a significantly higher water bill with each passing month. Therefore you need to keep an eye out on that as a valid warning sign.

Plant smart

If you have a garden and you would like to plant something there you should be careful and smart about it. There are plants with very expansive roots that could damage your pipes, sprinklers, drains, etc. You might think that this is not likely to happen to you, but the risk is too big to avoid this warning.

Out with the chemicals, in with the drain snake

Many homeowners tend to rely on various chemicals to help them get rid of clogs in their pipes. The problem is that while these chemicals eat away all the dirt, they can also do significant damage to your pipes and can cause leaks.

What you can do is choose an alternative or in other words a drain snake. They are pretty cheap and you can find them in a local hardware store. By using the snake you avoid damaging the pipes, and you also avoid direct exposure to often dangerous chemicals.

Never flush grease

People usually don’t think about what they throw down the sink.Why not: it’s easy, fast and convenient, and you don’t need to worry about the consequences now. You can always deal with it later or have a professional take care of your plumbing mess.

That’s a problem right there! Why would you even complicate things unnecessarily in the first place when you can just be smart and avoid grease in your sink which would come back to you like a boomerang.

Grease is problematic because it can still cling to the pipes even if you use a detergent to degrade it. What you can do is avoid pouring it down the sink entirely. Instead, put it in some empty container, let it harden and then throw it away with the rest of the organic garbage.

Check roof gutters

Cleaning your roof is something you need to do every once in a while anyway, so while at it you can also check the gutters just to make sure they are all up and running for rainy days.

If you find a lot of debris like leaves, bird nests, or whatever that might clog the passage, then you better clean that all up.

Blocked gutters just might direct the water to places you’d want to stay dry, like foundations of the house, basement, or whichever way the water might choose when the intended path is unavailable.