How to Prevent Water Damage in Your Home

There are a lot of ways that water damage might occur in your home. The resulting repairs might be expensive, uncomfortable and irritating. While you want your homeowners insurance to be able to protect you from the ramifications of these losses, you might be surprised to learn that it won’t cover every type of water damage. Therefore, preventing water damage is as important as insuring yourself against it. Consider the best ways to keep water damage risks to a minimum. a small house in the background

Why Homeowners Insurance Might Not Cover Water Damage

Homeowners insurance is supposed to protect your home against damage from unexpected, unavoidable hazards. In some cases, water damage falls into this category. For example, if a pipe bursts and floods your upstairs, then you likely have coverage for damage to your dwelling and possessions. Or, if a storm damages your home and water enters the property, then your policy can pay for the repairs.

However, water damage might occur from a slow leak that enters your home through a damaged, neglected roof, broken window, clogged piping or misaligned foundation. In these situations, your homeowners insurance likely won’t pay. Because these issues developed over time, then you also had time to repair and minimize the effect of a damage. Failing to do so won’t qualify you for home insurance protection.

Additionally, always note that homeowners insurance usually doesn’t cover flood damage when flooding results from a weather event. You can obtain this coverage. However, you will have to buy it as separate flood insurance, which is different from homeowners coverage.

Also, many policies will not cover water damage from backed up pipes, damaged sump pumps or overflowing sewers automatically. However, you might be able to obtain this coverage through a specialty policy endorsement.

Protecting Your Home from Water Damage

Since your homeowners policy won’t cover water damage when you could have otherwise prevented it, then you will need to make a priority of performing routine maintenance to keep these issues at bay. This includes:

Keeping a balanced water pressure in all your pipes.

Cleaning out gutters and drainage ditches to make sure you direct water away from your home.
Having a foundation inspection and making repairs if you find cracks or wet spots in your walls.
Cutting back branches that overhang your roof to prevent them from falling onto the structure.
Checking your roof for signs of loose shingles, animal damage or holes caused by falling objects.
Immediately calling a plumber for issues with septic tanks, sump pumps or clogged pipes.

Replacing the sealants around your windows and doors if you notice holes or drafts.

Essentially, your goal is to make your home as tight as possible to keep all environmental risks, water included, outside. Therefore, if you ever see a way for water to get into the home, you should make immediate plans to close the leak.

How to Prevent Water Damage in Your Home

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