Preventing Water Damage
DID YOU KNOW that a nice vacation is one of the most coveted, relaxing events you can experience? That’s right… a relaxing time in a beautiful location, enjoying time with family and friends… it can’t be beat.
But that nice vacation becomes a disaster with all kinds of regrets if the family arrives home to a flooded house!
It is one of the absolute worst events in life. You didn’t want to come home. You wanted to extend your vacation, but you know you have to go to work on Monday. So you arrive home late Sunday night, and when you walk in the door, instead of nice, plush carpet awaiting your footsteps, you discover a squishy experience, and the first thing you hear is the sound of a pipe spewing water all over the place in another room.
Oh, if only you had been home when that pipe broke! If you had been home, you could have quickly shut off the main water supply and cleaned up the small mess. But Murphy’s Law dictates that if the worst can happen, it will. Pipes seem to break when no one is home. Sump pumps seem to fail when no one is home. The list goes on and on.
What can you do?
Here are some tips homeowners can use to ensure water damage does not occur:
1. Secure all windows and doors. Remember that a storm can drive water into your home if there is any type of opening, even a small one at a window.
2. Don’t turn off the heat! Keep the thermostat set at a level that ensures nothing inside will freeze. In winter months, you never know how cold it may get when you are on vacation.
3. Some hot water heaters have a vacation setting. Play it safe and take advantage of it.
4. This one is really important! Shut off all water supply sources to anything that might leak, like the washing machine. Even better? If appropriate, shut off the main water supply to the home, but leave instructions if anyone is going to visit or stay at your home while you are away.
5. Make sure your sump pump is in good working order. A failed sump pump means ground water is going to intrude and create havoc in your home.
So enjoy your next vacation, but don’t let coming home be a disaster. Follow these tips to make sure you don’t suffer from a water damage disaster.
(But if you do, call a water Call Erickson’s Drying at 866-277-7744. We can fix it!)