“The average American uses between 80 to 100 gallons of water a day, so it’s no wonder that some of it goes “astray” and leads to water damage situations.”

When you consider how much water the average person uses a day it’s not really that surprising to realise that water damage happens all the time. Having insurance that covers water damage is one of the best things you can have especially relevant area that is susceptible to it but insurance doesn’t cover everything. For those things that insurance doesn’t cover the best thing you can do to prevent the damage from happening in the first place.

Imagine you had to hold to 1 pound weights in your hands above your head for 24 hours day seven days a week. You are more than capable of holding those weights out for a great length of time and eventually your arms will tire and you’ll be forced to let the weight drop. That is what it is like for a hose or pipe that is constantly under water pressure. The pipe or hoses designed to withstand great pressure but eventually it will wear out and burst. The best thing you can do is relieve the pressure from time to time. If you know that you and your family event we waived for some time you may want to switch off water to the house. This will take the pressure off your pipes and will extend their working lifetime.

Another persistent source of leaks is often the toilet. Leaking toilet can waste as much as 100 gallons of water every day. Thankfully finding out whether you’re not you have a leak is very simple. For a few drops of food colouring in the tank of the toilet and spend about 15 minutes watching it. If by the end of that time the colouring is still there then you do not have a leak but if it’s gone then it’s time to call in a plumber.

In general terms the average water damage repair job takes about 45 days to complete. That’s a month and a half of inconvenience that could be avoided by regular maintenance on your part. These are professionals who will do the work as fast and as efficiently as possible but it will be unavoidably inconvenient. There are a few things you can do to limit or eliminate the potential damage to your home.

• If you’re planning on leaving your home for any great length of time you should switch off the water at the main source to your home. This will prevent water leaks from happening while you’re away and are unable to deal with them. Even if only leaving for an hour you should switch off any running water such as a washing machine.
• If you have rubber supply lines leading to your washing machine, dishwasher or other appliance you should consider replacing them with metal ones. The rubber lines distend, burst and we are out with age. Metal supply lines have a much longer life expectancy and are able to deal with much more pressure.

You should flush your water heater tank twice a year to prevent the harmful buildup of minerals inside of it. By flushing it twice a year you are much more likely to get the full life expectancy out of your appliance and to not wake up one day to find your house flooded by a broken water heater.