Homeownership is full of highs and lows. Being able to look at a space and know it’s truly yours is a great feeling.
But it starts feeling less great when things go wrong, and the only person that can fix it—or pay for it to get fixed—is you and your budget.
It’s easy to see why in a situation like this, a leak in the home might be pushed pretty far down a list of problems to address, but we’re going to explain why this might not be a wise choice.
A Chance to Act
When you have a leak in your home, you have an early warning that you can act now with a smaller, more easily contained, and less expensive problem.
If you choose to ignore it, you have to be willing to save more money for the future when you may have a very expensive issue that may require tearing up floors and walls to fix the problem.
Even before a leak requires that kind of dramatic response, it can already be a drain on your finances.
In just one year, a leak may use up between 2,000 and 20,000 gallons.
Your water company doesn’t care that you never actually used that water, they’re going to bill you for it just the same, every month.
Finding the Leak
Taking care of a leak means trying to find its location and, in some instances, gauging how serious it is.
Some homeowners will have an easy time with tracking down a leak.
As it might be on a faucet, and the problem has been caught early enough to be fixed with a wrench.
Others will have to look at other fixtures, like water heaters, or showers, or the water or sewage pipes to look for telltale signs of water getting out.
If you’re wondering how severe the leak is, you can try using your water meter.
Shut down all the water in your home, and then take a reading of your water meter.
Then after about 15 minutes, look at your meter again. If your meter is still reading that water is being used, you have a significant leak.
Taking Control
You can avoid expensive repairs by not letting a problem degenerate to that point in the first place.
Make it a point to inspect your plumbing once or twice a year.
Check under sinks to see if there are leaks present, go into crawlspaces where pipes may be.
If your plumbing runs across walls and ceilings to get to higher floors of the house, check those areas for early signs of water penetration.
Another tactic is one of prevention.
For example, if you enjoy high water pressure for your showers and other water activities, be aware that higher water pressure puts more strain on your pipes.
If you lower your water pressure, you increase the lifespan of your pipes and get more years out of them.