subject: Preventing and Repairing Water Damage [print this page] Preventing and Repairing Water Damage Preventing and Repairing Water Damage
Water Damage can be easy to come across, but not every homeowner knows what to do about it. There are a number steps that you can do in order to prevent water from damaging your home, but if the damage is already done then it requires some serious work in order to restore your home to its original state. In order to understand how much of a problem water damage can be for many homeowners; take a look at what often causes it.
Causes of Water Damage
The most common cause of water damage in the majority of homes that experience it is flooding brought on following a period of heavy rain. Other common causes can include things like malfunctioning washing machines, a broken sump pump or an overflowing toilet. Water damage can also occur outside of the home thanks to blocked gutters and downspouts that can lead to overflowing if they aren't attended to.
Things To Do To Prevent Disaster
Water damage in homes can be prevented by taking proper actions beforehand. Clean your gutters regularly or look into having gutter guards installed so that the buildup of debris is slowed dramatically.
Beyond inspecting the gutters, make a habit of checking the home's foundation, walls and roof for cracks and imperfections. Water can seep in through damaged areas of these parts of the home and make a small problem much larger if left unattended.
Problems That Can Occur
Unfortunately, water damage often goes unnoticed until it becomes a problem for many homeowners. When the issue grows large enough that it becomes noticed without having to be actively looked for, then there is the potential for the homeowner and his or her family to run into a number of problems.
The main problem related to water damage that many people experience is mold.
Mold spores are tiny spores that circulate on the air. When they react with damp surfaces, such as those that have seen even a small degree of water damage, then the spores can fester into actual mold. Mold itself is a dangerous fungus that can not only threaten the health and well being of a building's occupants, but threaten a building's structural integrity if it gets into the wrong places.
To make matters worse, mold spreads more spores like the ones that originally created it when the surface that it's growing on is disturbed. From there, the spores are free to travel on the air and find more damp surfaces to interact with.
With the right waterproofing and preventative measures, such as a radon test, it's easy to keep water damage under control. Without it, however, one thing can lead to another and, before you know it, you face a growing list of problems that will only go away after a hefty repair bill.
