A plumbing emergency is one of the most sudden and devastating events that you can experience as a homeowner. While plumbing emergencies can happen almost anytime of the year, they are particularly common in winter, where freezing temperatures can cause your pipes to burst.
If a plumbing emergency isn’t taken care of immediately, your home can suffer thousands of dollars in water damage and other lasting consequences. Any homeowner in Henderson that wants to protect their home as fully as possible needs to learn how they can respond to a plumbing emergency. Here are a few tips for plumbing emergencies that you can use to protect your home and limit the damage that can result from a plumbing disaster.
Stop the Water
Water damage is the biggest risk from a plumbing emergency, which means the first thing that you need to do when an emergency occurs is to shut off the water in your home. First, you need to find the main shutoff valve for the water in your home and shut it down by turning it clockwise. Second, you should use the individual shutoff valves on your major appliances.
If you can find the fixture in your home causing the emergency, you can shut off the valve to that individual fixture instead of shutting off your entire water supply.
Check Your Water Heater
Once you’ve stopped the flow of water in your home by using the main shutoff valve, you will also need to turn off your water heater. When the water in your home is shut off, the pressure inside of your water heater, as well as the hot water, will start to rise. Should the pressure rise above your heater’s limit, it could cause your unit to burst, increasing the severity of your plumbing emergency.
Turn off your water heater to avoid further water damage in your home.
Spigots and Leaks
Now that you’ve shut off your water and your water heater, you need to make sure that no water can drain back into your home. Fortunately, this can be done fairly easily.
First, you need to go outside of your home and open all of the exterior spigots. This will drain the water in your pipes and keep it from going back into your home and causing more damage. Second, if you’ve identified any leak points in your home you will need to plug them up. While many homeowners choose to plug leaks with plumber’s tape or epoxy, you may want to catch water in a bucket until you can have your leak addressed by a professional plumber.
Learn More Tips for Plumbing Emergencies
Acting quickly and decisively is the best way to respond to a plumbing emergency. Follow these simple tips and you can limit the amount of damage to your home and save yourself a great deal of money. After stopping the flow of water in your home, you need to get help with your plumbing emergency by contacting the professionals at Village Plumbing, LLC.
Village Plumbing works with customers throughout Henderson and Las Vegas, and we can help you with your plumbing needs, including emergency service. Contact us today.
