You want your house to be standing and in good condition for as long as possible. A burst pipe can easily put paid to that, leaving you out of pocket or leaving your insurance premiums through the roof.
Instead of panicking about what can happen to your home on a wintry night or worry about your pipes freezing, you have to fix it quickly. If you don’t act fast when you notice a pipe has burst, you’re going to find yourself staring down damage that could have been avoided the entire time. So, here are four simple things that you can do when you notice a pipe has burst in your home.
Call a plumber
The first and smartest thing to do? Contact an emergency plumber quickly! This is especially the case when you notice pipes bursting and it’s the weekend or the evenings. It’s easy to forget that you don’t have to cope with this alone and professional plumbers have both equipment and expertise you can rely on. You can stop the water flow and they can fix the pipe. Even if it requires a full overhaul of the system, you can get help for a quick fix in the meantime.
Stop the water
Shutting off the water supply makes sense when a pipe has burst. The water already in the pipes will leak, and that cannot be helped, but shutting off the water prevents further water flow through the system. You want your home to stay as dry as it can and shutting off that flow allows that. Shut-off valves shouldn’t be hard to find as they’re usually around your water metering system.
Drain out the faucets
When you get the main water supply shut off, drain out the faucets into buckets if you can to relieve any existing pressure on the system. Turn on the sinks and bathtubs to let out the remaining water and then make sure that you have done both hot and cold faucets. You want all water out of the pipelines to avoid further water spill where the leak in the pipe is present. You can minimize any flooding this way and protect the house from further damage.
Clean up
You need to protect the remainder of your belongings and furniture from flooding and water spills, so once the water is off and you’ve done what you can to prevent any other flooding from occurring, get the dehumidifiers in. Soaking up excess water and clearing the flood water will help you to get the drying process started with your flooring. Calling your insurance company is a good idea here as they may be able to assist you with this. Your home insurance should protect you from the water leaks due to the pipes bursting, too.
It’s never nice to deal with a burst pipe, but once you have it you need to be quick in the steps you take so that you can move forward quickly and get your home back to its best.
Disclosure: This is a featured post.