Your water pipes may be some of the most hard-working, under-appreciated pieces of equipment in your home. They’re always there, providing a ready supply of water for you and your family to brush your teeth, make coffee, give the dog water, or do the dishes. Water pipes are out of sight and out of mind … until something goes wrong and you notice a leak. Then your water pipes suddenly become the star of the show.
The thing about water leaks is that they can often go on for a long time before they’re noticed. This can cause much more than the initial inconvenience of repairing the leak: it can cause expensive water damage to your flooring, walls, and even ceilings (if the leak starts upstairs). Here’s how to prevent water damage and spot leaks sooner using the latest home security system technology.
How to Prevent Water Damage With Your Home Security System
Don’t Let a Temperature Drop Devastate Your Pipes
If you live in a cold climate (like Northeast Ohio), you know how wintertime freezes can be problematic for your pipes. Sometimes, a pipe can freeze and burst and you don’t find out about it until the ice melts and water ends up everywhere. Understanding how to prevent water damage starts with proper wintertime pipe maintenance — but in order to do that, you’ve got to be two steps ahead of the weather.
That’s what makes today’s home security systems so useful. With their wireless notification technology, they can send you temperature alerts if the temperature in your home drops to a set low. This gives you advance warning and helps you spring into action to set up space heaters, insulate pipes, or take other emergency measures to ensure that things stay warm and dry.
Water Sensors Prevent Ongoing Damage
Even when you know how to prevent water damage and take every precaution to stop a leak from occurring in the first place, pipe breaks still happen. This often happens in the basement, where the leak goes on undetected until significant flooding has already occurred. In fact, the numbers show that 98 percent of homes will experience a water damage event in their basements at some point.
Basements aren’t the only place where floods and water damage occurs, however. Appliance disasters can also happen, with washing machine hoses breaking and dishwashers malfunctioning. (For those who are interested, the average age of a washing machine hose that breaks and floods a home is 8.7 years.) This is why it makes sense to equip your home security system with water sensors that will immediately notify you if water is detected anywhere it shouldn’t be.
If your basement is filling up with water, for example, your security system will send you a notification of the trouble. This will enable you to shut off the water and prevent further damage. Knowing exactly where all of your home water shutoffs are is an essential part of any home winter maintenance plan.
If you aren’t home, use your security system’s access to your front door smart lock to allow a trusted neighbor or plumber in to shut off the water for you. You can also install an automatic water shut off that will be deployed whenever a water sensor detects a leak.
Understanding how to prevent water damage once a leak begins is only half the battle. To truly protect your home, utilize your security system to help prevent those leaks in the first place … and to minimize them should they occur.
At ProTech Security, we have a strong history of experience, innovation, and customer service. The ProTech Security Advantage is more than 30 years of service in Northeast Ohio and a strong commitment to providing quality, cost-effective protection for homes, businesses, educational institutions and government facilities. To see what ProTech Security can do for you, contact us today.
