Tips to Prevent Frozen and Burst Pipes

I want to share some tips that will help you save money. As you probably have noticed, the weather in Louisville, KY, fluctuates, and in a few days, temperatures may drop significantly, causing water lines to freeze. Keeping your water lines from freezing and bursting is not easy, but here are some tips to help you avoid a water damage restoration situation.

1. First, go down to your basement and locate the main valve that turns off the water supply to your outside faucets. The reason for this is that when your faucet and pipe freeze, the ice can continue running inside, causing more significant damage. By turning off the water supply, there is no water to freeze and swell up, reducing the risk of bursting pipes.

Frozen water lines in spring are a major cause of water damage in Louisville, KY. If you don’t want to make a water claim on your home insurance policy, you may want to follow these tips.

2. Second, install a faucet cover on your outside faucets. These covers can be found at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Amazon, and other stores. Putting on the cover is very simple. Inside the cover, you will find a plastic line going through the cover with a loop that goes onto the faucet.

Attach the cover and pull it tight from the outside. The cover helps keep the cool wind away from your water line. While this cover works well, remember that if temperatures drop very low, there is still a chance your faucet could freeze.

For better application and tips, consider calling your local plumber. Despite this disclaimer, I highly recommend using these covers, as I use them at home to avoid dealing with water damage restoration issues and potential water damage claims.

3. Third, insulate your water lines with foam. You can find this foam at the same places as faucet covers: Home Depot, Lowe’s, Amazon. This foam, designed to prevent condensation, works excellently to prevent pipes from freezing.

In my experience, using this insulation foam is necessary, especially if you cannot turn off the water supply. Installing this foam is easy; it’s already pre-cut and slides on easily. The challenging part is insulating water lines in a crawl space, which can be messy. If you prefer not to handle this yourself, call your local plumber.

Conclusion

As a homeowner or business owner, you are responsible for the maintenance of your property. The most common cause of water damage claims in spring here in Louisville is burst water lines. To prevent this from happening, follow these steps:

1. Turn off the water valve that feeds water to your outside faucets.
2. Install faucet covers on your faucets.
3. Insulate your water lines with foam.

If you prefer not to deal with this yourself, call a plumber for assistance. If you experience a water damage situation in Louisville and need help, please don’t hesitate to call Rodriguez Cleaning and Restoration at 502-365-6779.

Rodriguez Cleaning and Restoration is known for professional carpet cleaning and area rug cleaning in Louisville, but our technicians are also certified in water damage. We have the latest equipment and tools to assist you with any water damage you may have. Hopefully, these tips will prevent you from needing our services. Good luck!

Need water damage help in Louisville? Rodriguez Cleaning and Restoration provides fast, professional water damage restoration in Louisville, KY, with 24 hour emergency response. Call (502) 365-6779 or request a free quote today.

How Do You Know If Your Sump Pump Is Working Properly?

Being a water damage restoration company in Louisville allows us to see and deal with many issues most homeowners don’t encounter every day. The most common issue for water damage in Louisville, KY, is the failure of sump pumps. Your sump pump can fail to work for many reasons, and that’s what I want to cover here. Having a sump pump failure on a rainy day could cost you several thousand dollars.

Let’s review how your sump pump works and what its function is. Sump pumps are designed to be in water and pump the water out of your basement. You may ask yourself where this water comes from. It’s very simple. All the water we get from a rainy day drains down around your foundation and goes under the concrete slab in your basement. If we get a lot of rain, this water will start rising up, and your sump pump pit will start filling up to the point where your sump pump will begin pumping this water away from your foundation walls. This is a quick explanation of how your sump pump works.

If your sump pump isn’t working properly, you will have what is called water backup. Many insurance companies sell water backup endorsements for your policy. If you don’t buy this coverage separately, you could be in trouble. Most of the time, when something like this happens, you will be spending over $7,000 on average. Water backup from your sump pump will often have a very drastic impact on your home. When you call a company like Rodriguez Cleaning and Restoration to assist you with water damage, most of your flooring will need to be removed because this water is heavily contaminated and polluted. Baseboards and drywall that were contaminated will also need to be removed and disposed of.

The first thing is knowing what a sump pump is and where you can find it. Let’s begin with where to find your sump pump. If you don’t have a basement, you don’t need to worry about sump pump issues. If you want, you can skip this article, but I still recommend you read it because you could help a friend and save them the headache of going through a terrible water damage situation that could be prevented by knowing how to maintain or check that your sump pump is working correctly.

As mentioned, if you don’t have a basement, you are fine. But if you do, let’s find your sump pump. Look for a dark hole that is most often in a corner, behind a door, or in a closet. If you have an unfinished part of the basement, check there first. You will find PVC pipes or other pipes coming out.

Now that you’ve found it, the first thing is to make sure your sump pump is plugged in. Your sump pump works with electricity. If you unplug your sump pump by mistake and don’t plug it back in, I guarantee you that a water backup is about to happen in your basement.

Let’s make sure your sump pump is connected to the electricity and that the outlet has power.

After your sump pump is plugged in, let’s review how it operates. Your sump pump has a switch that varies in shape and form. Most of them have a floating switch. If you take a bucket of water and dump it in the hole or tank, you should hear the sump pump running. If you’re not afraid to use your hand, you can raise the floating piece up, and it should start the pump.

Another overlooked issue is dirt in the bottom of the pit (tank). Many of these pits have never been cleaned in the past. This dirt could clog your sump pump.

Now that we have checked your sump pump and confirmed that it’s working properly and the pit is clean, we need to ensure that the sump pump is dumping the water in the right place and far enough from your foundation. Your sump pump has a line attached to it that you need to make sure is not broken. If it is broken, I recommend you call your local plumber, and they can fix it for you.

You will need to find where this line is dumping all the water. This line should be at least 2 feet away from your walls. By being away 2 feet, we know this water won’t flow back in. If your line is too close, all the water that is being pumped out will come back in with the rest of the water from the rain. Eventually, your sump pump won’t be able to keep up with the water flow, and you will have water backup into your house.

If sump-pump failure has already left standing water in your home, our flooded basement cleanup team can assess affected materials and begin emergency water extraction and drying. Call Rodriguez Cleaning & Restoration at (502) 365-6779 for 24/7 water-damage help. Contact a plumber for sump-pump repair or replacement.

In Louisville, KY, we deal with a lot of situations where your house or business could end up flooding. These could be natural reasons such as a lot of rain over a few days and water just starting to come into your home, or The Ohio River deciding to flood your house. Other reasons could be out of your hands, like a sump pump failure or a water leak in your water heater tank. But what are the do’s and don’ts after a flood in Louisville? Very simple: follow our recommendations.

Safety First After a Louisville Flood

The first thing is the safety of you and your family. If you have water in your basement or any other part of your house, be aware that water and electricity aren’t friends. Make sure this water hasn’t touched or gotten to any outlet or electrical receptacle. If it has, do not go into the water. Call a professional.

Another important safety precaution is to avoid as much as possible contact between your body and the water. Water that runs through the ground is considered black water. In your yard, there are many contaminants and pesticides that have made this water very dangerous.

What To Do After a Louisville Flood

• Remove as much excess water as you can by mopping and blotting. If you have a shop vacuum, use it.
• Disconnect all your appliances from the electricity.
• Take some towels and wipe excess water from wood furniture after removing lamps and tabletop items. This will prevent color transfer onto flooring.
• Remove wet bed sheets.
• Look around for wet boxes and dispose of them if they are not salvageable.
• Put toys in boxes.
• Remove and prop up wet upholstery and cushions.
• Place aluminum foil or wood blocks between furniture legs and wet carpeting.
• Turn on the air conditioning for maximum drying in summer. Set the fan to auto.
• Make a sign saying, “Do Not Enter” and explain to your kids to stay out.
• Remove colored rugs from wet carpeting. You don’t want permanent bleeding everywhere, plus it can damage the area rug.
• Move valuable art objects to a safe and dry place.
• Gather loose items from floors. If possible, box them up.
• Remove all your decorative wall items.

What NOT To Do After Flooding in Louisville

• Don’t pretend you can handle this situation with a shop vacuum from Home Depot. You need professional help.
• Don’t hire or trust the first person or company that shows up at your door. Do your research or call your insurance company and ask for a referral or any close friend.
• Don’t leave wet fabrics or clothing in place. Hang furs and leather goods.
• Don’t leave books, magazines, or other colored items on wet carpet or floors. Take your books to a dry area.
• Don’t use televisions or other household appliances. Disconnect them.
• Don’t turn on ceiling fixtures if the ceiling is wet, and keep out of rooms where ceilings are sagging.
• Don’t turn any light switches if your walls are wet around them.

A flooding situation is a big stress that some people have to go through in their lives. I hope you are not one of them, but it’s always good to educate ourselves in case it ever happens. It’s better to be on the side of people who know what to do rather than those who ask, “What am I going to do now?”

Don’t forget, if you have to go through a flooding situation in your life, Rodriguez Cleaning and Restoration is here to assist you and help with any water damage in Louisville you may have. Give us a call at 502-365-6779; we are available to you 24 hours a day.

Need water damage help in Louisville? Rodriguez Cleaning and Restoration provides fast, professional water damage restoration in Louisville, KY, with 24 hour emergency response. Call (502) 365-6779 or request a free quote today.