Hey everyone! Thanks for all your responses on the recent “largest contributor to home damage” poll on Facebook. Here is a screenshot of the total votes.
Yes, It is true each of these items often cause or increase the damage of your home. Most of these items can be resolved easily by staying on top of the repairs and maintenance of your home before they turn into bigger things. Repairs and preventive maintenance goes a long way to stretch your dollar instead of waiting and making huge repairs.
The one single item that can wreak the most havoc on your home is water or moisture intrusion. Because it happens slowly overtime, it’s often overlooked. However, it opens the door for some of the most expensive repairs of your entire home. Water and moisture, when not allowed to dry quickly, or gets into places it shouldn’t be, will cause rot in wooden components, soil erosion and house settling. Moisture is also a key ingredient in mold/fungus growth (health issues), and invitation for termites to move in.
For best results, make sure the methods to keep water outside of the home, away from the foundation, and inside the appropriate plumbing systems are installed correctly and resolved quickly. The longer you wait, the more expensive and unhealthy it becomes.
Many of the things we look for during home inspections are directly related to protecting your home from water related damages. These include properly sloped soil, proper use of gutters and downspouts, damaged roof and wall coverings, flashings, windows, doors, attic ventilation, intact and functional plumbing, toilets and fixtures properly installed, all vents and exhaust fans discharging to the exterior, damaged framing/floor lumber, proper HVAC drain installation, foundation condition, crawlspace moisture, and more.
During an inspection, we use our senses to look for moisture issues (sight, hearing, touch, smell). While these provide valuable insight to your home, we also use technology to extend our visual, non-intrusive assessments. Some of the tools we use to help identify moisture concerns are thermal-imaging cameras and moisture meters. See the image below for an example of a water leak inside the wall that everything appeared normal.
Contact us today if you suspect water intrusion or water damage. We can help you identify the extent of repairs, and even provide a report of our assessments to help move your insurance claim along! Mold testing is also among our services.
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