How Water Damage Affects Your Properties

A broken pipe. Torrential rain. For property owners, they could mean serious trouble. Dealing with water damage is neither simple nor cheap. Whether it’s a flooded basement or a small leak that goes unnoticed for a long time, the effects of water damage are significant. It’s not just fixing a leak, but widespread repairs, replacements, and renovations. With water damage, prevention is your best bet.

Water damage can be caused by numerous things: extreme weather events, bursting or leaking pipes, plumbing problems, or malfunctioning appliances, for example. No matter the cause, the effect on your property is serious. Even when the original problem is small.

With water damage, we usually think of broken pipes and flooded floors. Hard to miss when there’s water everywhere. We’re usually able to respond quickly, turn off the water mains and work out a solution. But most leaks aren’t visible straightaway. They tend to go unnoticed for a long time, causing significant increases in your water consumption at the minimum and often resulting in serious damage in the long run.

The Effect of Water Damage

In residential buildings, water damage can affect furniture and appliances, flooring, and wall coverings, costing both money and time. And for offices and hotels, there’s also the potential loss of income if the leak has caused enough damage to force an operational shutdown or rooms (and the ones directly beneath them) have to be closed off to guests.

Secondary water damage is also an important effect. Long-term effects can be poor quality of indoor air and mold growth, potentially affecting the health and wellbeing of occupants.

Paying for Repairs, Replacements, and Renovations

The costs of fixing water damage can run high quickly. After fixing the cause of the leak and dealing with water extraction and cleanup, repairing, or replacing furniture and equipment and organizing renovations will lead to considerable expenses.

With floods, even a few centimeters of water in a 100 m2 property can cost you close to €10.000,- with repairs, cleanup and building materials to replace ceilings, walls, or flooring. While your insurance may cover part of your expenses, the costs of structural damage due to prolonged leaks are often not compensated.

Preventing Water Damage

While you can’t control extreme weather events or bursting pipes, you can prepare your properties and avoid preventable water damage. Making sure gutters are cleaned out, plumbing and household appliances receive regular maintenance, and pipes don’t freeze in the cold winter months are a start. Keeping an eye on your consumption and water installation is another important step.

With Smartvatten’s remote water monitoring system, your consumption is tracked in real-time. Not only does our system let you know exactly how much water is used and when, but it also picks up on any deviations from your normal consumption. It automatically triggers an alert, allowing you to check your property and quickly respond to any leak, preventing serious damage. Tracking, recording, and analyzing the water consumption of your portfolio will help you implement responsible water management and preventing major damage to your properties in the future.

Want to find out what you can do to prevent water damage to your properties? Contact us at info@smartvatten.com!