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Swift Actions to Tackle Burst Pipe Water Damage

Swift Actions to Tackle Burst Pipe Water Damage

In terms of the speed and the scale of damage it can cause, a burst water pipe may be the worst plumbing emergency to have in your home, warns PMI Prime. If broken, the typical ½ – ¾ inch water pipe can discharge between 50 – 110 gallons of water into your home per minute.

For context, an average household uses approximately 210 gallons of water daily for all of its indoor water needs. This means that in less than five minutes of being broken, a water pipe can discharge more water into your home than your family will use in 24 hours.

This is why it is so important to act swiftly and decisively when dealing with a burst water pipe inside your home. A half-minute of delay can result in thousands of dollars’ worth of water damage. But to act with speed and intention, you must know the proper steps to take.

This post explains critical steps to take if you discover a burst water pipe inside your home.

Effective steps for tackling a burst water pipe in the home

  1. Check for electrical hazards

Assess the situation to be sure the water is not in contact with a power outlet or electrical device. To be safe, wear rubber-soled shoes and rubber gloves. Turn off the power supply to the affected area or your entire home at the circuit box. If unsure of what to do, call an expert. 

  1. Shut off the water supply

If the broken pipe has a dedicated shut-off, turn it off. If not, turn off your home’s water supply at the main water shut-off valve. Hopefully, you already know where to find your main water shut-off valve and how to use it.

  1. Drain your faucets

Open all faucets in your home and let them drain. By getting rid of the water inside the pipes, you stop more water from being discharged onto your flooring. Do this step only if the home’s water supply has been turned off at the main water shut-off valve.

  1. Call your insurance company

Contact your insurer to inform them of the incident in your home. If you do not have all the details, do not try to answer all of the company representative’s questions. They will likely send someone to assess the damage to your home and the cause.

  1. Remove your belongings

Items that can be damaged should be removed from the reach of the water. Remove furniture, rugs, electronics, etc. from the area. If they are wet, move them outside or to a dry place inside your home. Your insurer will not pay for damage that could have been avoided.

  1. Document the damage

Get detailed pictures and videos of the broken water pipe and the resulting damage. Include all affected areas inside your home. Add an audio narration to make the video easy to understand. This information will be important for your insurance claims.

  1. Start removing the water

If you have a wet-dry vacuum, use it to suck up the water on your floors. If you don’t have a wet-dry vacuum and it is not possible to rent one, use buckets, mops, and towels. You can use a dustpan to scoop water from the floor into a bucket or container.

  1. Dehumidify and dry your home

Place a dehumidifier in the area with the worst damage, to suck moisture out of the air and accelerate the drying process. Open your windows to improve circulation, and if you have fans, position them to blow directly on the affected areas.

  1. Call for professional help

At this point, you may want to call an emergency plumber and have them come over to your home to assess the damage to your plumbing and fix the damaged pipes. The sooner you do this, the quicker your family can return to its normal routine.

You also need professional help to complete the process of drying out your home. Just because you don’t see water on the flooring inside your house doesn’t mean all the spilled water is gone. There could be water hiding inside your belongings and in the structures of your home. Some of the problems you will need professional help to fix include:

  1. Pipe repair or replacement: You should have your damaged pipes evaluated to determine the immediate and remote causes of the problem. Whether you will need to repair or replace the pipe will depend on the extent of damage to your plumbing. A reputable plumber will help you avoid future problems like this in your home.

  2. Mold removal and remediation: If water has infiltrated into the structures of your building or some items within the home are not properly dried, they will encourage mold and mildew to grow inside your house. A mold removal and remediation specialist can prevent this.

Lastly, when taking steps to fix a burst water pipe inside your home, do not limit your actions to solving only the current problem. You want to look at past issues that may have contributed to the problem and take steps to prevent a recurrence. Working with a reputable plumber ensures that all aspects of the issues are taken into account.

How Leaking Pipes Can Damage Your Home

How Leaking Pipes Can Damage your Home

Clean water is delivered straight to your home and readily available whenever needed. That has to be one of the greatest conveniences of modern life. Unlike people who lived less than one hundred years ago, we do not have to fetch water from a well or nearby river and store it in containers inside the home for later use.

Instead, vast networks of pipes crisscross our cities to carry water from treatment plants to our doorstep. From that point, another network of pipes distributes the clean water to the appliances and faucets inside the home. The invention of modern plumbing surely ranks as one of the greatest innovations of all time.

But as good as modern plumbing systems are, they are not without problems, warns Foothills Properties Management & Realty. The number one issue with plumbing systems is that they tend to leak. Plumbing systems have hundreds of connections, and each one has the potential to spring a leak. That is why yearly, around 1 trillion gallons of water are wasted through home plumbing leaks.

Every drop of water leaking from a plumbing system costs homeowners money. In one year, this cost can amount to hundreds of dollars. But this is not the only consequence of a burst pipe inside the house. By far, the greatest cost of a plumbing leak is the damage out-of-control water can cause to the physical structures of the home.

That is why 1 in 60 insured homes will file for water damage in any given year, and 20% of all insurance claims are connected to water damage. The result is that of the $10 billion worth of insurance payouts made every single year by insurance companies, damage by leaking pipes contributes a huge portion. So, how exactly do leaking pipes damage your home?

How leaking pipes damage your home

Water pipes leak for several reasons, aging plumbing systems, corrosion, sedimentation inside pipes, sudden temperature changes, loose fittings and connections, excessive water pressure, and much more. 

When a water pipe leaks, the water inside the pipe is released into the surrounding environment and can cause three kinds of damage.

Damage to the contents of the home

By far, the least-devastating damage caused by a leaking pipe is when the water destroys the content of the house. This happens when items like carpets, clothes, paintings, or furniture stand in the path of running water and get soaked as a result. As costly as this damage is, it is minor compared to the other ways water can damage your home.

Pipe leaks leading to cosmetic damage

Water from a leaking pipe can significantly damage the home’s appearance. If the leaking pipe is hidden behind a wall and the leak is not detected, the wall can become discolored as a result. 

Water can also cause wall paint to start to bubble, peel, or flake. It can make the wallpaper start to peel or warp. Leaking pipes can also cause the de-laminating of plywood and other materials in the home. All these will diminish the appeal of the home.

Pipe leaks leading to structural damage

By far, the worst effect of a leaking pipe is when the water attacks the physical structures of the house to either weaken or destroy them. This often happens when a pipe leak goes undetected for a long time. There is no limit to how much harm water can cause to the structural elements of the building.

If this problem is not addressed promptly, it can destroy the building. Examples of structural damage caused by leaking pipes include:

  • Floorboard warping: This happens when water collects beneath the floorboards. The boards swell as a result and start to warp. This often manifests as bumps or lumps in the carpet or wood floors.

  • Wood rot: If contact between water and the home’s wooden components persist, those components can start to rot. This can happen to doors, door jambs, floorboards, cabinets, roof structures, and other wooden features of the building.

  • Damaged insulation: The insulation inside walls should always be kept dry. If water gets into the insulation, it loses its insulating properties and the ability of the HVAC to regulate the home’s temperature will be compromised.

  • Drywall damage: Water can saturate the drywall to the point where it begins to bulge and sag. If the drywall and framing materials of the house are weakened, the entire ceiling or upper floors can collapse.

  • Foundation damage: The greatest threat that water from a leaking pipe poses to a house is the threat of foundation damage. If water seeps into the foundation of the building, it can corrode the steel frames inside the foundation. If this happens, the foundation can start to crumble or break away.

To sum up, a seemingly minor issue like a tiny leak from a pipe is enough to destroy the entire structure of a building completely.