4 Ways to Prevent Plumbing Leaks

Water damage is a serious problem because it can lead to loss or damage of property and health risks. If you are having a plumbing leak in your home, you probably have molds and mildew growth because moisture facilitates their growth. This can cause allergic infections to both children and adults. You need to fix plumbing leaks as soon as possible to avoid flooding or humid conditions in your house. Here are some ways to prevent plumbing leaks:

Lag your pipes

If you live in cold areas, it is highly recommended you lag (insulate) your pipes to prevent water from freezing inside the pipes. When water freezes, it changes its state into a solid and expands causing the pipe to stress and cause a leak. With time, the small leak turns out to be a problem if it’s not fixed. You can lag the pipes yourself or hire a plumber to do it for you if you don’t know how to go about it. In addition, insulating your pipes saves you money because the water conveyed remains at a constant temperature all through. Make sure that pipes found in your garage, basement and other crawl spaces are insulated because the areas are extremely cold especially during winter or autumn.

Locate your pipes

Locating pipes in your home helps in preventing water leaks by helping you insulate all the pipes even those found in the basement and knowing where the pipes are to avoid causing a leak unknowingly. If you know where your pipes run through in a home, you will be cautious when driving nails on the walls or when digging trenches outside. To locate your pipes and electric cables, you can use a stud sensor.

Locate the main water valve in your home

Sometimes, if you cannot be able to locate where the plumbing leak is, you need to shut off the water and contact a plumber. To avoid flooding in your house, you will have to locate the main water valve in your home to shut off the water. Professional plumbers are experienced and have necessary equipment to determine the source of the leak and fix it.

Install a flow sensor

With the current technology, there are flow sensors which are used to detect plumbing leaks in a home and shut off water in the entire house. This could be an ideal choice if you don’t spend most of the time at home because the sensor can still shut off water flow even in your absence. You just need to hire a professional plumber it for installation and maintenance of the flow sensor.