How To Prevent Water Pollution In Malaysia

How to Prevent Water Damage

Preventing water impairment is a whole lot cheaper than paying for repairs. Here are three easy prevention tips.

Proper downspout drainage for a house

Image: Joe Downey

Key Takeaways

Clean your gutters.
Scroll to: Ensure Good Drainage
Direct downspouts 5-x' away from the house.
Curlicue to: Ensure Good Drainage
Test your sump pump in one case a year.
Coil to: Test Your Sump Pump Regularly
Fix all water leaks.
Scroll to: Check for Water Leaks and Fix Them
Replace missing roof shingles.
Scroll to: Check for Water Leaks and Set up Them

Water damage is the No. 1 culprit that weakens your dwelling house's foundation and the very core that holds your house together.

You've heard about cadre strength for your trunk. Well, water damage hits at the core force of your house, eventually causing serious structural damage. Damp wood invites termites and carpenter ants; plus, it causes mold and mildew.

Here's how to forbid h2o damage using three easy strategies that volition requite y'all peace of mind the side by side fourth dimension heavy storms hit.

How to prevent water damage checklist — Paradigm: HouseLogic

#ane. Ensure Adept Drainage

Why it matters: Poor drainage weakens your foundation, causing cracks, uneven settling, and pathways for water to enter your home.

How to do information technology:

Make clean your gutters routinely. A clogged gutter will send cascades of water downwards the side of your house, dissentious your siding and foundation.
Ensure your downspouts directly water 5 to 10 anxiety away from your house.
Make sure your chiliad is sloped at to the lowest degree 6 inches over a x-foot bridge abroad from your foundation. That gradient keeps water from getting downwards correct next to your foundation, where it could cause walls to lean, cleft the masonry, and create leaks. (For crawl spaces, keeping water away makes sure excess h2o doesn't pool underneath your flooring, making for damp conditions that encourage mold, rot, and insects.)
But don't allow the soil go too dry, either. Long dry spells allow the soil around your house dry and shrink. A big pelting may make the soil aggrandize, putting pressure on your foundation walls. In a drought, run a soaker hose at least 6 inches from the foundation and three inches under the soil to keep the soil from contracting and expanding.

Maintenance toll: Very little. Cleaning gutters can exist a no-price DIY job, or you tin can hire a pro for $50 to $250, depending on the size and height of your home. To get the soil slope y'all need, you might have to purchase some additional topsoil.

Worst case if you put it off: Your foundation could settle, cracking your basement walls. The cost to stabilize, repair, and seal deteriorated foundation walls is a whopping $15,000 to $40,000.

Related:

vii Signs You Accept a Foundation Problem
How Foundation Repairs Work

#2. Test Your Sump Pump Regularly

Why information technology matters: Sump pumps come up to life during storms. That's non when you want to realize yours isn't working properly. You should check it at least once a year, and ideally perform several checks during heavy storm seasons.

How to examination your sump pump:

Slowly fill the sump pump pit with water. Scout for the "bladder" (similar to the float in your toilet) to ascent, which should plow on the pump. And so watch to make sure the h2o level falls.
Test your backup pump the same fashion, but unplug the main pump first.
If you don't take a backup pump -- or a generator -- and are on municipal water, become one that runs on h2o pressure. If you're on well water, your only option is the bombardment kind.

Maintenance price: Testing is free; a h2o-powered fill-in sump pump, including installation, costs $150 to $350; a new battery for a battery-operated sump starts around $200.

Worst example if you put information technology off: Your basement could flood, ruining everything in it, including drywall and carpeting. (Did you know your regular insurance doesn't comprehend flooding?) Plus you run the risk of mold and mildew — which tin besides be a very expensive problem.

Related: Replacing Your Sump Pump

#3. Check for Water Leaks and Fix Them

Why it matters: Persistent leaks lead to mold and mildew, rot, and even termites and carpenter ants (they similar chewing soggy wood, since it'due south soft). Yet if you lot fix a leak soon subsequently it starts, at that place may be no long-term impairment at all.

How to check for leaks:

Check for night spots nether pipes within sink cabinets, stains on ceilings, toilets that rock, and of course drips.
At least once a year, inspect your roof. Repair missing, loose, and damaged shingles. Repair any cracked caulking and check for leaks around flashing.

Related:

How to Audit Your Roof
Tips for Preventing Leaks

Maintenance cost: Negligible for a simple fix, such equally a new washer. A visit from a plumber might gear up you back $250; a roof repair, a few hundred dollars to $1,000.

Worst case if you put it off: Drips ruin the cabinet nether the kitchen sink, and run downward into the floor sheathing and joists underneath, so you need a structural repair, plus new cabinets and new kitchen flooring. Or the roof rots, so yous need a new roof and repairs to rooms direct beneath.

So now you know how to forbid water damage — and add years (and lower maintenance costs to your home!).