Preventing Water Damage While You’re Away from Home | SERVPRO® of East Mecklenburg/Matthews

12/10/2021 (Permalink)

If water damage happens while you are away we can get you in the dry again. Contact SERVPRO of East Mecklenburg/Matthews to get started.

Ahh, what a relaxing vacation. Wasn’t it great? You got to go to that special, sentimental place with those people you love, you experienced that thing you always hoped as a kid you’d get to do, and you got fully recharged after a long, weird year. You even did that one thing you were afraid to try, but you ended up loving it—congratulations!

After the perfect trip away from home, the last thing you want to find is that while you were gone your home experienced a dreadful water event. In only a couple days’ time, literal tons of water can gush through your home, ruining treasured personal belongings, materials, floors and even foundations.

The truth is that your home much more likely to suffer a water emergency while you’re away than a fire or burglary, and yet fewer than 20% of homeowners consider the need to mitigate potential damage before leaving home.

So let’s look at a few things you should be doing on your way out the door to prevent a soggy end to an otherwise great trip.

Turn off your water main. This is the most sure-fire way to mitigate damage. Even if a pipe or hose suddenly fails while you’re gone, it can only leak so much water without being fed more from the main supply line. This step alone can save multiple thousands of dollars in repair costs.

Your water main is likely located on the lowest floor of your home, directly in line with the street side shutoff valve used by your local municipality.

Examine your sump pump. Your sump pump, if installed, collects groundwater and drains it away from your house. This can help your home stay dry in heavy storms and area flooding. To check that it’s working properly, dump a bucket of water into the sump pit and listen for the pump to begin working. A battery backup can also ensure your pump keeps working even it electricity fails while you’re gone.

Freeze-proof your toilets. If you’re traveling for winter, you can’t prevent all possible frozen pipes, but you can do something to keep your toilet water from freezing and cracking the porcelain. Step one is to turn off the water supply to the toilets and then flush them. Then pour marine antifreeze (the non-toxic kind for boats) into the remaining water in the bowl, and it will keep it from freezing while you’re gone.

Lastly, you can adjust your water heater, either by lowering the temperature several degrees or switching it to vacation mode if your heater has that option. Turning your heater off completely is not recommended.

If water damage happens while you’re on vacation, we can get you in the dry again. Contact SERVPRO to get started.