FLOODING & WATER DAMAGE: The Benefit of Neighbors and Housesitters
Posted on Tue, Nov 29, 2011
Water damage from flooding can happen at any time. As Murphy's Law has it, seems like it will happen while you are away on vacation. That is what happened here. A perfectly lovely home; well cared for but what happened?
By having someone watch your home, as in staying there or walking through your home daily, may help prevent something like this happening to your home.
People tend to turn down the heat when leaving on vacation to save a few bucks on the heating bill. But when we have a cold snap followed by a warming trend is when pipes, especially on the exterior walls, seem to break. In this case, pipes in an upstairs bathroom broke, flooded the room until the floor & the ceiling below were so saturated that the sheet rock gave way. Water poured into the garage, onto the furnace and off went the pilot light. Brrrrrrr - this lovely home has now become an ice castle. With no heat inside the ice begins to inch it's way onto the walls and windows while the water continually flows. As it is wicked up by carpets and furniture, the rest is flowing out into the street.
The benefit of neighbors: Seeing a sea of water coming down the driveway and turning into a sheet of ice caught the eye of someone. What if no one is at home? Assumption was made that the city was contacted as the main water line to the home was located and the water supply was shut off at the street.
The benefit of a housesitter: Should your housesitter experience such a thing, one would then locate the inside water shut off valve and turn that off preventing further flooding.
At this point, contact the professionals at Taylored Restoration for your emergency, clean up and repairs and your insurance company for further direction.
