What to do if a Pipe Bursts in the Middle of the Night
No matter if you are a homeowner or someone who rents, some issues will arise at some point. The number of issues and the frequency of them popping up highly depend on the age of your residence and the maintenance it had over the years.
So, no matter if you live in your own home or if you pay rent you will have issues. What type of issues, again depends on the age and maintenance of your property, location and type of housing you are in. If you live in residential buildings you can expect anything from roaches and ants to plumbing issues which are the topic of today’s article.
Plumbing issues and burst pipes must be the number one fault of any home. They are prone to bursting and the timing is really difficult to establish. I was a victim of a pipe burst in the middle of the night and it caused me a lot of issues until I managed to fix it. The article here before you will walk you through what is happening and why, as well as what you can do to react quickly and make damage to your home a lot lower.
If you have an emergency with your plumbing, just like I did, and if you don’t know what to do there are always professionals like HedlundPlumbing that are swift and detailed.
Now let’s continue with what we have to tell you.
Why does this happen?
Pipes bursting is nothing strange nor a mistake on your behalf. Most of the pipe bursts we encounter are happening in the winter. If the insulation of the pipes and around the pipes is weak that it may easily happen that your pipe freezes, expands and thins down the wall of the pipe until the pressure is so big that it can’t hold. An increase in pressure and expansion of the ice if it freezes, is a death-dealing situation for any pipe, metal plastic or other. Another reason for pipes bursting, especially if warmer climates, where there can’t be any freezing to be blamed is the age and material of the piping system. Material of the pipes in any home or office plays a huge role and cheaper and less lasting materials are prone to breaking or spurning a leak. Another thing to consider is the quality of your water and the age and quality of the plumbing system. Metal pipes corrode and are eaten away by chemicals in the water which also can lead to a pipe leak or bursting under stronger pressures.
What to do?
Well, the situation is nothing simple or easy to deal with. If you are in such poor luck and you get a burst pipe the first thing to do is to locate the valve that shuts down the water supply in your home and stop it from flooding everything. Now some homes have only one, a main valve that stops water supply to the entire home, while others may have several in the different rooms. You may have a separate water feed to your kitchen and that valve will not regulate the water supply in the bathroom, or one of the bathrooms if you leak there. Get to know your home and get to know your water and electricity supply points or cut-off points mainly because of these reasons. Acting swiftly will mean you will be able to save your home from a total flood and you will not receive a huge water bill on top of everything you had to endure so far.
Call landlord
This step is for those of you that are living under rent. Since this isn’t your home and since these types of issues aren’t yours to handle unless the rent agreement you made does not specify that, your next step after stopping the flood is to call your landlord and explain what happened. In these cases, the homeowners need to know what is happening and they need to know why that happened. Any mistake or fault made by you will be on you to settle financially, while any issue like this that isn’t your fault will be treated and repaired by your landlord or someone they hire for the job.
Call professionals
As a homeowner, like myself, I needed to call someone professional to come and check the situation I was having. I can do pretty much anything around the house except water and electricity, which is why I stopped myself from tinkering at all and as soon as the morning dawned, I called a plumbing service to send someone and check out what happened. I had an issue in my bathroom and since that was my first pipe burst, in my own home, I took my sweet time finding the main valve for the water shutoff and flooded most of my bathroom. Thankfully it wasn’t the kitchen because the damage would be even worse. Why professionals though? Well, the fact is that you may have more issues than what you are seeing. There could be a pipe burst in another place that you can’t see right now, it might be deep in the wall somewhere and only a professional with the right tools may determine that.
Acting swiftly
Water issues, as well as electrical faults, are the number one reason for home destruction. Electrical faults and issues may cause your home to burn down, while water issues may cause flooding, rot in walls, beams and you can even be stricken with mould which is a life hazard if inhaled and lived with for extensive periods. This is why you need to act swiftly and rehabilitate whatever you can and as much as you can until the professionals do not come and take over. This will mean a world of difference when it comes to repairs and later issues that may emerge.
After everything is said and done you need to know that in these types of situations you need to have your head cool, you need to know access points and valve shutoff points in your home, and you need to call professionals to deal with this if you are not one, and you need to make sure that after water issues and leakage all your walls and rooms are thoroughly dried out so you don’t have rod and mould issues later on.
