Stop Water Leaks to Prevent Property Damage

Think water damage to your home is limited to flooding from rain or other weather events? Then you might be surprised to hear there are several other causes for water damage, like leaking pipes, frozen pipes, faulty plumbing, sump pump failures, roof leaks, clogged gutters, sewage backup, and appliance, toilet, faucet or water heater leaks. If these leaks go unnoticed, they can cause expensive damage to your home and possessions.

Water Damage and Homeowners Insurance
Consider this: You are away on vacation and there’s a water leak in your home. You aren’t there to take care of it and minimize the damage—and the longer the water sits there, the worse the damage gets. Homeowners insurance may help cover the expense of fixing the damage and replacing these items depending on what caused the leak. Burst pipes, rainfall and ice dams may be covered, but flooding caused by a river or lake that overflows is not. Sewer and drain backups coverage usually depends on if you bought that kind of rider to add to your policy (and some insurance companies don’t offer that). Check with your agent to understand what your policy covers and if additional riders that may help are available.

How to Avoid Issues
If a leak is found early, you can stop it from getting worse and damaging your home.

• Know how to check for leaks in faucets, showerheads, toilets, pools, hot tubs and sprinkler systems—and how to fix them (or the number of a good plumber). Here are a couple of helpful resources for those who live in Arizona and Oregon:
• Arizona Municipal Water User's Association has a great Smart Home Water Guide.
• Regional Water Providers Consortium in Oregon has a number of videos on detecting household leaks.
• Keep pipes warm in the winter if you live in a climate that has cold winters.
• Keep gutters clean to avoid ice dam formation in winter if you live in a climate that has cold winters.
• Turn off the water supply to your house if you’re going to be away from home for an extended period of time.
• Turn off your water heater or put it in vacation mode if it has that feature.
• Install a water leak detector. (Some insurance companies give discounts on homeowners insurance if you have one installed.) Smart water leak detectors can send an alert to your phone when a leak is detected, but it’s best to install one that can automatically turn off the water the water supply when a leak is detected in case nobody is home to do that.

At minimum, undetected water leaks can cause your water bill to go up. If caught early, the fix is usually easy and affordable. If not, the damage could be very expensive.

We hope you never have water leaks in your home, but if you do, we hope you find this article helpful.