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The Best Ways to Prevent Bathroom Water Damage

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A clean bathroom creates a luxurious feel in the home. Photo by Breadmaker, Shutterstock. A moldy shower is a common occurrence with water damage. It's hard to feel clean in a bathtub covered in mold and mildew. Be sure to check your plumbing every 6 months to detect leaks and other common culprits of water damage. Routine inspections and maintenance of your bathroom are key to the prevention of water damage.

Keeping your bathroom beautiful means more than just grabbing the disinfectant and a sponge. It also requires routine maintenance to prevent water damage from occurring.

Not only is water damage expensive to repair, it’s downright ugly. Mold, mildew, and rot that lurks in corners, surrounds faucet bases, and covers walls and tiles looks dirty. Can you really feel clean taking a bath or shower surrounded by the symptoms of water damage?

Toilets

To prevent water damage from a faulty or overflowing toilet, it’s important to routinely check your toilet’s functionality every six months. The things you should check look for are…

The flushing mechanism: The fill valve should shut off when the float reaches the appropriate water level. If, however, the tank runs when not in use, you need to replace the flapper, fill valve, or both.

The supply line: Make sure the valve is working properly by operating it to make sure the water supply shuts off. If not, replace it. If your toilet ever overflows, you’ll want to be able to shut off the water immediately.

Showers

If your bathroom hasn’t been updated in the last twenty years, you’re 37% more likely to suffer water damage in your shower.

The most common offender? A faulty shower pan.

A shower pan is placed under your shower’s tiles to prevent leaking. To make sure it’s doing its job, test the shower pan each year.

Start by blocking the shower’s drain. Next, fill the shower with about an inch of water. Mark the water’s line using a pencil and let it sit for 8 hours. If the water stays at the marked line, your shower pan is working fine. However, if the water level decreases, you’ll need to call a plumber. Otherwise, you’ll eventually suffer water damage under your shower floor and it probably won’t be covered by insurance.

Keep in mind that homeowners insurance doesn’t cover water damage that has occurred over time. This is because it is the homeowner’s responsibility to maintain their homes in order to prevent water damage in the first place.

It’s also important to inspect the grout and tile around your shower and immediately repair it if you find cracks in your tile or grout coming loose.

Sinks

While a leaky faucet is a waste of money and annoying, it can easily be fixed by replacing the washer and doesn’t necessarily cause water damage. Faulty plumbing under the sink, however, is a common culprit of water damage.

Be sure to inspect the plumbing under your sink every 6 months. Look for secured and unsecured connections as well as corrosion and kinks on the plumbing’s surface. Also, inspect the shut off valve by running the sink’s faucet and then shutting off the valve to make sure the water stops. Replace if needed.

By following this simple guide and inspecting these three main areas of your bathroom from one to two times per year, chances are you’ll not only prevent water damage, but you’ll also keep your bathroom looking beautiful.

The post The Best Ways to Prevent Bathroom Water Damage appeared first on SCGH.


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