Four Homeowner Hacks For Water Damage Prevention

There are some steps for keeping water damage at bay that require a good amount of work like cleaning out your rain gutters and fixing your appliances. Fortunately, there are many very simple water damage prevention hacks you can employ as well. 

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As recommended by our water damage restoration professionals at On-Site Cleaning, here are four easy hacks for keeping water damage at bay. 

Know Where Your Water Main Shut Off Is

If you are around when a pipe breaks or some other flood starts in your home, your first step should be to shut off your water as soon as possible. Doing this without delay can turn what might have been a significant water damage disaster into a minor annoyance. Although, this only works if you know where your water main shut-off is and how to operate it. These shut-off valves can be located just about anywhere so the last thing you want to do is to lose precious time looking for your shut-off valves while your home is flooding. 

Regularly Check Drains

Even if you are careful about what you put down your drains, they may become clogged over time and need to be cleared out. If you are not careful about what goes down your drains, then this is inevitable. In general, you should take care to unclog your drains every few months. It is best to use a drain snake rather than Drano or other corrosive chemicals that can damage your pipes after repeated use over time. Failing to unclog your drains regularly increases the risk that your sinks will overflow and flood your home. 

Flush Your Hot Water Heater Annually

Over time, sediment accumulates in water heaters which can cause them to fail and potentially cause water damage if the residue is not periodically removed. Fortunately, this can be easily solved by flushing your water once annually to remove any of the accumulated sediment.

Shut Off Your Water While You’re Away

This is an easy thing to do that will significantly increase your peace of mind while on vacation or out of your home for an extended period of time. All you need to do is locate your water shut-off valve and turn your water off while you are gone. That way, if a pipe were to break or any other potential water damage event occurred, there wouldn’t be any water supply to bring about any actual damage. Overall, this is a smart choice when leaving for your home for an extended time with virtually no negative consequences and potentially huge positive consequences. 

Don’t let the simplicity of these tasks hold you back from making them a priority. Just taking a few minutes every couple of months for these water damage prevention hacks will go a long way toward keeping your home water damage free. Nonetheless, if you do ever deal with a water damage disaster, give our team a call at On-Site Cleaning.