If you are planning on taking out a home insurance policy, then you need to make your home as safe and damage-proof as possible. The safer your home is, the lower your payments will be. One big problem for a lot of homeowners is water damage. Water can cause a lot of structural issues. If your home is at risk of water damage, then you will have to pay a lot more for your policy.
This post will tell you about some water-damage risks you should fix if they exist in your home, in addition to how you can prevent water damage from occurring.
Basement Flooding
During periods of heavy and intense rainfall, people’s basements are often the first place to flood. If your home’s basement is not flood-proofed, then your insurer will charge you a lot more for your policy. Because of this, you should hire a basement waterproofing service to come in and fix it for you. Before hiring one make sure that you do a lot of research online and find the most experienced, reputable, and reliable contractor in your area. Always read reviews before hiring contractors, also.
Attic Insulation
If your home’s attic isn’t properly insulated, then water could get in. Unfortunately, attic leaks are often only noticed when damage has already occurred. If there are no signs of any water damage in your home’s attic currently, that does not mean that it can’t still happen. The best way to rule out attic leaks is to contact a professional insulation firm and ask them to inspect your home’s existing insulation. If they identify any holes, gaps, or problems with it, then they will be able to repair it or restore it, giving your home protection against wet weather.
Loose Tiles
Another common cause of attic and roof leaks is loose roof tiles. If your home’s roof tiles aren’t properly fixed (or if they have deteriorated over time) then water will get into your house with ease. Roof leaks can be disastrous. Even a very small gap in your roof’s tiles could allow a lot of water into your house, which could then cause your home’s ceilings to fall through. Make sure that you hire a professional roofer to inspect your home’s roof. You should never attempt to look at your roof yourself because you won’t know what you are looking for and you could injure yourself.
Window Rot
If your home’s window frames are made from wood, then wood rot is always a threat. Wood rot can lead to large holes forming in your window frames. If these holes are allowed to form, then when it rains water will get inside. This is a very easy problem to identify and resolve. If you do detect signs of wood rot on any of your window frames, then you should have the window replaced. Unfortunately, wood rot cannot be reversed—it will always spread. If the window isn’t removed then the rot will spread through it and eventually cause the frame to collapse.
Water Stopcock
External water sources aren’t the only threat to your property. Sometimes, floods and water damage occur from within. If your home ever does flood or if there is ever a burst pipe, you need to know where the water stopcock is. Turning the stopcock off will cut off all of the water that’s being fed into your house. While knowing where the stopcock is isn’t going to save you any money when you are applying for an insurance policy, if a flood does happen, it will limit the extent of the damage.
Proactively Check
From time to time, go around your house and check for any leaks. More often than not, leaks start off small. It can be very hard to identify leaks when they first begin unless you actually go around and search for them. If you do detect any leaks then don’t attempt to repair them alone. Instead, you should hire a plumber and get them to come in and do it for you. If you aren’t a plumber then you won’t be able to effectively resolve and repair leaks.
Plumber’s Certificate
Before you apply for an insurance policy, you might want to reach out to a plumber and ask them to come and certify that your home’s plumbing is all in order. Providing your chosen insurance company with a certificate verifying that your home’s plumbing is all in order will no doubt save you a lot of money. A plumber’s certificate won’t cost you a lot of money, either. The plumber will come in and check all of your home’s pipes and your boiler. If they decide that any work needs to be done, then they will give you a quote for it.
Smart Thermostat
One very effective way of reducing the amount of money that you have to pay for your policy is to invest in a smart thermostat. A smart thermostat can help to keep your home’s pipes from freezing. In winter, if you do not have a smart thermostat then pipes can freeze over. The reason that a smart thermostat will prevent your pipes from freezing is that the water running through your home’s pipes will be kept at the same temperature all year round. When your home uses a traditional thermostat, it will turn and off depending on your home’s internal temperature, rather than maintain a consistent temperature. Frozen pipes are always at risk of bursting.
Leak Detection
Finally, another way of reducing the amount of money that you have to pay for your insurance policy is to install a leak detection device. However, if you are going to install one of these devices then you need to make sure that you notify the insurance company of this. If you don’t then there’s no point in you doing it. You need to notify them so that they can then adjust your policy price accordingly.
It’s better to prevent water damage than to try and fix it after it’s already happened. Water damage can be very expensive to resolve. Home insurance companies know this, which is why they charge significantly more for home insurance on properties that are at risk of flooding. If your house is at risk of flooding, then take this post’s advice.
