Water in the Home: How to Find, Fix, and Clean Water Damage

Arg! There are few disasters that can occur in the home that are more heinous and hard to deal with than water damage. It can sneak up on you or hit you suddenly. No matter how it strikes, it's a tough one to clean up after and the damage can be subtle and long lasting.

It's not always obvious when water damage has occurred because often the source of the damage is a broken or leaky pipe behind the drywall or under the concrete slab of your house. Leaking pipes take a long time to show up, especially if the leak is slow and, by the time water spots or sagging ceiling tiles start to show, the damage can be extensive.

Another source of water damage, a clog in the drainage system, can manifest itself suddenly in most cases. The resulting backed up toilet, sink, or bathtub drain is easy to spot and easy to rectify, usually.

A third kind is a failure of a major appliance – the dishwasher, washing machine, or refrigerator – and the resulting damage can also be hidden for some time.

Last on the list is damage that occurs when the roof or basement walls leak and the sump pump fails. This last type can be quite devastating and is usually readily apparent to the naked eye.

Finding the damage can be easy if the cause is a sudden catastrophic failure of an appliance or plumbing, or a violent rain storm that damages roof tiles or shingles. Sometimes it can be subtle and slow to reveal itself, in the case of plumbing behind the walls. A hot water pipe may expand, causing a leak between joints, for example. The leak disappears when the pipes cool down, making detection work slow and frustrating. A hot spot in the concrete slab or bathroom tile may indicate another hot water pipe leak. (This is even more fun to sort out if you have radiant floor heating.)

Water spots in the ceiling are a definite indication that something is amiss, as well as wet carpeting and you don't have a dog. Small leaks are the worse as the damage is slow to develop and hard to spot.

It's important to understand the extent of the water damage so that clean up and repair can be thorough and effective. While some damage is immediately apparent – such as damage to porous materials like wood, carpeting, drywall and such – latent damage like mold may take months or even years to develop although, depending on conditions, mold can develop in as little as 24 hours. Thorough drying of the damaged area, as well as replacing such porous materials as carpeting, drywall, and ceiling tiles, will minimize and possibly prevent a mold or mildew problem. Antiseptic solutions may need to be applied, particularly if the source of the damage was a backed up sewer or septic system.

Bottom line: address water damage immediately, for your house’s sake and for your health.

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About the Author:
The author writes articles on Austin Real Estate Blog. For more information about Austin real estate, Lakeway Texas real estate and Austin realtor can be found on the net.

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