Properties Washed By Water Damage

Water can be as essential to life, but also as a destructive force in life like it could diminish the value of your home or your building. Your homes, as well as your commercial buildings, can suffer water damage that results in an increased of maintenance costs, a decrease in the value of your properties, it could lowered productivity and have potential liability associated with a decline in your indoor air quality.

The best way to protect yourself against this potential loss brought by water damage is to ensure that your building components, which enclose the structure, or the building envelope, are water resistant.

You will also want to ensure that manufacturing processes, if it is present, do not allow an excess water to accumulate. Make sure finally, that your plumbing and ventilation systems, which can be quite complicated in your buildings, operate efficiently and are well maintained. For this will provide you some basic steps for you in identifying and eliminating potentially damaging excess moisture brought by water damage.

The following are your common building-related sources of water intrusion that water damage brought:

• Your windows and Doors: You should check for the leaks around your windows, your storefront systems and your doors.
• Your roof: Your improper drainage systems and roof sloping reduce your roof life and become a primary source of moisture intrusion thus, leaks are also common around vents for exhaust or plumbing, rooftop air conditioning units or other specialized equipment.
• Your foundation and Exterior Walls: Seal any cracks and holes in your exterior walls, joints and foundations for these often develop as a naturally occurring byproduct of differential soil settlement.
• Your plumbing: Check for your leaking plumbing fixtures, your dripping pipes (including fire sprinkler systems), your clogged drains (both interior and exterior), your defective water drainage systems and your damaged manufacturing equipment damaged by water damage.
• Your ventilation, your Heating and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Systems: There are numerous types, some are very sophisticated, are a crucial component in maintaining a healthy, comfortable work environment for you .For they are comprised of a number of components (including your chilled water piping and condensation drains) that can directly contribute to an excessive moisture in your work environment. In addition, in humid climates, one of the functions of your system is to reduce the ambient air moisture (relative humidity) level throughout your building. An improperly operating HVAC system in your building will not perform this function.

You can help prevent a water intrusion and excessive moisture levels brought by water damage by yourself by regularly inspecting the following elements of your building to ensure that they remain in good condition.

• You should use Flashings and Sealants: They are designed to prevent water intrusion in your spaces where two building materials come together. Your Sealants and caulking are specifically applied to prevent moisture intrusion at your building joints. They must be both maintained and in good condition lest another water damage will only ruin them.
• Your Vents: All your vents should have an appropriate hood, your exhaust to the exterior and be in good working order.
• Review the use of your manufacturing equipment that may include water for process or cooling. Ensure your wastewater drains adequately away with no spillage. You should check for condensation around hot or cold materials or heat transfer equipment.
• Your heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems are much more complicated in your commercial buildings.
• Check for Humidity.
• Check for moist Areas: you should regularly clean off, and then dry all your surfaces where moisture frequently collects.
• Check for your Expansion Joints: your Expansion joints are materials between your bricks, your pipes and your other building materials that absorb movement. If your expansion joints are not in good condition, water intrusion could occur brought by water damage.

How To Prevent water damage

Your Home Maintenance Checklist

Water leaks brought by water damage can happen anywhere in your house, but they occur most frequently in your kitchen, your bathroom, and your laundry rooms. Whether it's a slow drip or a sudden burst, water leaks caused by water damage can cause extensive water damage to your home and your personal belongings.

Laundry Room

• Your Washing Machine: Inspect your washing machine hoses regularly for wetness around the hose ends and some signs of bulging, cracking, or fraying. Replace your hose if a problem is found or every three to five years as part of your proactive maintenance program.
• Simple home repair task like replacing your washing machine hoses is a fairly as easy as hooking up your hose to a water spigot.
• Just shut off your water supply to your washing machine. If there is not a shutoff near your washing machine then close the main shutoff valve in your house.
• Unscrew your old hoses and hook up the new ones.
• Make sure you line up your threads and screw your hoses on tightly. When you are done, turn on your water supply and check carefully for some leaks caused by water damage.
• Your Washing machine hoses can be purchased at most of your home repair centers, your hardware stores, and your plumbing supply outlets. You should expect to pay $10 to $20 for a new set of washing machine hoses.
• Your Water heater: Most of your water heaters last 10 to 15 years. Wet spots on your floor or a rusted tank may signal a problem caused by water damage. Your Hot water heaters should be installed on the lowest level of your home and always is located next to your floor drain. If installed above or adjacent to your finished spaces, your hot water heater should be placed inside a drain pan with the drain pan piped to your floor drain.
• Your Air conditioning: At the start of the cooling season, have yourself an A/C system serviced by your qualified contractor. Make sure their service includes inspecting and cleaning your air conditioner condensation pan drain line to keep it free of obstructions brought by water damage. Change your air filters on a regular basis

Basement

• Your Sump pump: your Sump pump systems assist in keeping unwanted water out of your house, which can be caused by water damage. A Battery-operated back-up sump pumps could offer a degree of protection against a power failure or failure of your primary pump. A generator can also be used to power your pump in case of a power failure. Test your sump pump before the start of each wet season that could cause water damage, to ensure it is in working order. For Sump pumps are not intended to last more than 10 years. You must have some components replaced or serviced within those 10 years.

General Tips

• Check for your hidden leaks by turning off your faucets, all your water-using appliances, and not your flushing toilets for one hour. Record your water meter reading. If the flow indicator (triangular or diamond-shaped rotating button) is spinning or the meter reading has changed while no water is being used, a leaking pipe may exist caused by water damage
• Know where your main water shut off valve is located in your home and check it frequently to make sure it is operational to prevent water damage.