Water damage in your home isn’t always as obvious as a natural disaster or broken pipe. Oftentimes, it can be gradual and difficult to detect. Water intrusion is one common cause of excess moisture, and it happens so gradually that many homeowners don’t even know it’s occurring. What exactly is water intrusion? What dangers does it present to your home? Where can you find water intrusion repair in Sacramento? Keep reading to find out more.
What is Water Intrusion?
Water intrusion is any unwanted movement of water or water vapor into areas of your home where it can cause damage. Note the inclusion of “water vapor” here. Many people don’t realize that a simple excess of humidity in their home can lead to water damage, but it can. While any type of unwanted moisture moving into your home is considered water intrusion, most people refer to the “bigger” water problems as flooding. So, for the purposes of this article, we’ll use “water intrusion” to refer to the less noticeable movement of water into your home.
This might include instances like seepage of moisture through your basement’s concrete walls, water penetration in the eaves of your roof, or water damage in the walls around your poorly sealed windows. All of these types of water intrusion can go unnoticed for years but bring a lot of potential issues. Let’s discuss some of those problems.
Damage Caused by Water Intrusion
“A little water never hurt anyone,” or so the saying goes. But despite how minimal and how slow this type of water damage can be, it can still be quite extensive. Exposing your home’s building materials to moisture over and over again every time it rains can cause them to degrade and even begin to rot. Wood and drywall become weaker and weaker until structural integrity is compromised. If the water intrusion is occurring in your basement’s concrete flooring, you also run the risk of cracking concrete.
Many people don’t realize that mold doesn’t just grow on things; it actually consumes those materials. So, if mold is growing inside your drywall or on your wooden support beams, it’s actively decomposing those building materials and further weakening the structure of your home. Repeated exposure to high moisture levels also creates an ideal environment for mold growth, which causes its own damage.
The Dangers of Water Intrusion
The damage described above can pose a serious danger to your home. A weakened structure is an unsafe one. Walls and ceilings can begin to buckle, placing additional strain on other elements of the home’s frame. Eventually, this can lead to a seriously compromised home in its stability. Cracked concrete in your basement also creates an unstable foundation, which is a further safety hazard for your home.
Mold growth also presents an immediate health risk to your family members. Mold spores released into the air can circulate through your home via the HVAC system, leading to flare-ups of existing respiratory conditions and the development of new health problems.
Repairing Water Intrusion
Water intrusion may be gradual, but it’s still dealt with in the same way that major flooding is dealt with. First, we’ll identify the source of the excess moisture—improperly sealed windows, roof damage, unsealed concrete, etc.—and try to prevent any further moisture problems as we work to clean up the water damage and remove any mold growth. Then, we’ll suggest more permanent solutions to deal with the water intrusion, including basement waterproofing, roof repairs, window replacements, and anything else that will prevent future issues.
Whether you have persistent water intrusion or need major water main repair in Sacramento, contact Bullseye Leak Detection for the services you need.
How to Have My Home Professionally Inspected for Water Intrusion
Water intrusion is a problem that can cause severe damage to your home, and it can come from any number of sources. It can be a foundation that hasn’t been properly waterproofed, an old window with deteriorating seals, or even leaky pipes. Whatever the source, excess moisture in your home can cause water damage, mold growth, and other problems. It’s important that you can pinpoint the source of the water intrusion and treat it to prevent future damage. The best way to do this is with a professional water intrusion inspection. But how does getting one of these inspections actually work? Keep reading to learn more about our water intrusion inspections, leak detection, and slab repair in Sacramento.
Step One: Finding the Right Professional
The first step in getting a professional water intrusion inspection is to ensure that you’re hiring the right kind of professional. This is not a job for your average neighborhood plumber. While a plumber may be adequately equipped to check your plumbing system for leaks, they’re less prepared to deal with issues like leaky basements and windows and may even lack the skills and tools to deal with slab leaks.
It’s important to work with a company like ours, which specializes in leak detection. Regardless of the source of the moisture, we can help you diagnose the problem and advise you on how to stop it at its source.
Step Two: The Inspection
Once you’ve found the right company to help you with your water intrusion problem, it’s time to schedule your inspection and let the experts get to work. We do our best to schedule inspections as soon as possible, and especially prioritize leaks, because we know how quickly water damage can spread and we try to stop it as soon as possible.
Suppose we suspect your leak is in the plumbing. In that case, we’ll use additional equipment like highly sensitive audio equipment to listen for the sound of CO2, which we induce into leaking lines, escaping from leaking lines, or infrared detectors to find where hot water is pooling and how far it has spread. When your inspector arrives, they’ll utilize several advanced tools to test the moisture levels throughout your home. This can help us narrow down our search to a specific area of your home.
Step Three: The Repairs
Once we have found the source of the water intrusion in your home, it’s time to talk about how to stop it. Depending on where the water is coming from, there may be a number of different approaches to dealing with the issue. An old, leaky window may need to be replaced; you may need to completely waterproof your basement and install a sump pump, or you may need to repair or replace certain pipes in your plumbing system. We’ll discuss the exact details of the problem with you, so you’re fully informed, then provide our recommendations for addressing it. Even if the fix isn’t something within our realm of expertise, we can at least get you pointed in the right direction to deal with the water intrusion.
What Is a Water Intrusion Inspection, and When Do I Need One?
Water intrusion is a broad term that can encompass a wide variety of moisture-related issues in your home. Regardless of the source of the water that’s making its way into your home, a water intrusion inspection can help. But what exactly is a water intrusion inspection, and how do you know when you need one? Keep reading to learn more about these inspections and how to tell if you need a water intrusion repair in Sacramento.
What Is Water Intrusion?
In order to properly understand a water intrusion inspection, you must first understand water intrusion itself. As stated above, it’s an umbrella term that refers to any source of unwanted moisture making its way into your home. This can include plumbing leaks, roof leaks, basement seepage, and more. Water intrusion can be sudden and drastic, or gradual and difficult to detect. It’s these latter types of water intrusion that often require an inspection to track down the source and correct the issue.
How Do You Know You Need an Inspection?
So, how can you tell when you need a professional water intrusion inspection? Naturally, if you’re looking at a sudden and dramatic source of water (like a burst pipe or flooding from severe weather conditions), you probably don’t need someone to inspect your home to tell you that you have a moisture problem or where it’s coming from. However, if you’re noticing more subtle signs of water intrusion, an inspection can help. Here are some signs to watch for that indicate you need a water intrusion inspection:
- High humidity levels in certain areas of your home
- A musty smell with no clear source
- Walls are damp to the touch
- Persistent mold problems
- Discolored spots on walls or ceiling
All of these issues may exist simultaneously, or you may only have 1 or 2 of these signs in your home. Regardless of how many you notice in your house, it’s likely still a good idea to contact a professional for a water intrusion inspection. The sooner you can pinpoint the source of excess moisture in your home, the more damage you can prevent.
What Does the Inspector Look For?
When a leak detection specialist comes to inspect your home for water intrusion, there are several things that they will be looking for:
- Specific aspects of your home that may lead to moisture-related problems (e.g., improper grading around the home, broken gutters or downspouts, etc.)
- Indications of moisture intrusion by using high-tech thermal cameras and moisture meters
- Structural damage caused by water intrusion
- Secondary issues created by water intrusion, such as mold infestation
Once your inspector finds signs of moisture, they’ll use their knowledge of how moisture and water can move through a building to trace the water intrusion back to its source. For example, let’s say that you’ve noticed a discolored spot on one area of your ceiling. This likely indicates a leak in your roof. However, water can travel along the beams supporting your roof before dripping down and pooling to create that water mark, so the leak may not be directly above that spot in your attic. Your inspector will be able to trace the water back to its source so that proper repairs can be conducted.
Your inspector should also be able to communicate clearly to you how to prevent future moisture intrusion in your home. For instance, if the water intrusion is in your basement, they should recommend full waterproofing of your basement and/or regarding the area around your home so that the ground slopes away from your foundation, rather than towards it.
What Repairs Will You Need?
The answer to this question will depend on the source of your water intrusion. If you have moisture seeping into your basement from the surrounding soil, waterproofing and a sump pump may solve the issue. If water is leaking in around your windows during heavy rainstorms, replacing your windows will likely fix this issue. If water is seeping up into your home from a broken water main underground, the underground pipe will need to be repaired or replaced to fix the issue. Either way, the first step in getting the proper repairs is getting an inspection that can pinpoint the cause and exact location of the water intrusion for you.
