Water damage prevention

Prevent water damage at home before a supply valve lets go at two in the morning. Six shut off valves replaced, braided steel hoses at the washing machine, the water heater flushed and checked, caulk renewed at the wet areas of the house and the sump pump tested under load. One visit, and it is the cheapest insurance most homeowners never think to buy.

The economics are lopsided. A failed valve under a bathroom sink costs very little to replace on a Tuesday. The same valve failing while nobody is home takes out a ceiling, a floor and whatever was stored below it, and the insurance claim brings a deductible and a rate review with it. Our crews see the second version far more often than the first, which is why this package exists.

What gets replaced and checked

• Six fixture shut off valves replaced with quarter turn ball valves
• Washing machine hoses swapped for braided steel with new washers
• Water heater drained, flushed and the pressure relief valve tested
• Caulk renewed at tubs, showers, sinks and the toilet base
• Sump pump run under water, with the float and the discharge checked

Six valves covers the usual set in a house with two bathrooms and a kitchen. Additional fixtures are a small line rather than a second visit, and we would rather do the whole house at once than come back in a year for the three we skipped.

Why the old valves fail

Most houses here still have multi turn stop valves with a rubber washer and a packing nut. They sit untouched for 20 years, the rubber hardens, and the first time somebody closes one to change a faucet it either refuses to seal or starts weeping from the stem. That is the failure mode, and it usually happens at the worst moment, with the water already running.

Quarter turn ball valves have no washer to harden. They open and close with a lever, they seal properly after years of sitting, and they let a homeowner isolate one fixture without shutting the whole house down. That last part matters more than it sounds. A valve you can actually operate turns a flood into a puddle.

The washing machine hose nobody replaces

A rubber washing machine hose is under full house pressure every hour of every day it is connected. Rubber ages, the bend behind the machine ages fastest, and when it goes it delivers water at the rate of a garden hose until somebody notices. Braided steel lines cost very little and remove one of the most common large claims in residential insurance.

Second floor laundry rooms raise the stakes, since everything below is in the path. If yours sits upstairs and has no pan or floor drain, we will say so and recommend one. Where the laundry is being rebuilt anyway, that correction rides along with the laundry room build at almost no extra cost.

The water heater, and what the flush is really for

Sediment collects at the bottom of a tank and insulates the burner from the water it is meant to heat. That costs efficiency, shortens the life of the tank and makes the popping noise people describe as the heater complaining. A yearly flush is ordinary maintenance almost nobody performs, and it is quick work when somebody is already in the basement.

We also test the pressure relief valve and look at the age plate. A tank past 12 years old is on borrowed time, and the useful thing is knowing that before it decides for you. We do not replace water heaters as part of this package, and where the tank is gas fired, anything touching the gas connection goes to a licensed plumber rather than our crew.

Caulk is not cosmetic

The joint where a tub meets tile takes movement every time somebody steps into it. When that joint opens, water goes behind the surround, sits on the subfloor and rots it quietly for years. The first sign is usually a soft spot in front of the tub or a stain on a ceiling below. By then the repair is framing work, not caulk work.

We cut out the failed joint properly, clean the substrate and lay new sealant rather than running a fresh bead over old material, which is what makes most recaulking fail within a year. The same treatment goes at the shower base, the sink rim and the toilet base. Where tile has already failed, that becomes tile repair work and gets quoted on its own.

Kitchens get the same attention at the sink rim and the backsplash joint, which is where a slow leak hides under a cabinet until the base swells. If the countertop is coming out anyway, the honest sequencing is covered in our notes on countertop and backsplash work.

The sump pump, tested rather than looked at

A sump pump that hums when you lift the float is not a pump that has been tested. We fill the pit and let it cycle under real load, watch where the discharge actually goes, and check that the check valve holds so the water does not run straight back into the pit. Three quarters of the failures we find are in the discharge line, not the pump.

Discharge lines that end two feet from the foundation are the classic. The water leaves the pit, soaks the ground beside the wall and comes back in, which is a loop the homeowner pays to run all spring. Extending that line is small exterior work and it is the fix we recommend before anybody starts talking about interior systems.

Battery backup is worth a conversation in houses where the pit runs often, because the storms that fill a basement are the same storms that take the power out. We will tell you whether yours is a candidate. What we will not do is sell foundation waterproofing, because it is not work our crews take on, and a company that does not do the work should not be the one selling it to you.

Where our plumbing line sits

Stated plainly, because it matters. Fixture level work is ours. Supply valves, faucet and hose connections, traps, fixture swaps and sealing all sit comfortably with our crews. The main water line, the sewer line, anything gas fired and anything requiring a permit for new plumbing go to a licensed plumber, and we say so rather than stretching.

If we open a cabinet and find galvanized supply pipe, a saddle valve on a copper line feeding an ice maker, or a trap arm plumbed into something creative, that goes in the written note with a recommendation rather than a quiet repair. Fixture level upgrades that do make sense are covered under bathroom fixture work.

Houses where this pays for itself fastest

Anything built before about 1990 with original valves, which covers most of the housing stock in Ypsilanti, Dearborn and the older neighborhoods of Royal Oak. Second homes and properties that sit empty for stretches. Rentals, where nobody is home during the day to hear water running. And any house with a finished basement, where the thing being protected is the most expensive square footage in the building.

Newer builds in Novi and South Lyon usually have modern valves already, so the value shifts to the hoses, the heater and the sump. We scope it to what the house actually needs rather than running the full list regardless. The rest of the towns we cover sit on our service area page.

If the basement is finished, or about to be

Finishing a basement puts drywall, flooring and furniture in the one room in the house with a floor drain and a sump pit. Doing this package before the finish work goes in is the right order, because every valve and every hose becomes harder to reach the moment the ceiling is closed.

Owners in the middle of that project should read our notes on how a basement finish is sequenced. The mechanical and moisture items belong at the start, not as a punch list at the end, and the ones that get skipped are always the ones that need a wall opened later.

Appliances that leak quietly

The dramatic failures get the attention, but the expensive ones are slow. A dishwasher supply line seeping a few drops an hour under a cabinet will rot a toe kick, swell a cabinet base and reach the subfloor before anybody smells anything. There is no puddle to find, because the material soaks it up as fast as it arrives.

Ice maker lines are the other repeat offender, especially where a previous owner tapped into a copper line with a saddle valve. Those fittings pierce the pipe with a needle and depend on a rubber seal that hardens like every other rubber seal in this article. We replace them with a proper stop rather than tightening one and hoping.

Refrigerators with water lines want checking behind the unit, which nobody does because the unit is heavy. Our crew pulls it forward, looks at the fitting, and puts it back. Where a kitchen is being reworked anyway, all of this is trivial to correct while the cabinets are out, which is one more argument for doing appliance connections properly during the build rather than afterwards.

Leaving the house empty, for a week or a season

Water damage is a function of how long it runs before somebody notices. In an occupied house that is minutes. In a house nobody has walked into for three weeks it is however long it takes for a neighbor to see something. That is the whole risk, and it is why we tell clients who travel to close the main valve rather than trusting the individual stops.

Closing the main is only sensible if the valve works, which loops back to the first item on this page. Part of the visit is making sure yours turns, and showing whoever is house sitting how to use it. A leak detector on the floor beside the water heater costs very little and is worth having in any house that sits empty.

For properties empty across a Michigan winter, a single visit is not the right answer at all. Somebody has to be in the building on a schedule, which is what our monthly vacant home check is for. Clients heading south usually book this package in October and the watch visits behind it.

Landlords have a version of the same problem between tenants, where a unit can sit empty for six weeks in the middle of a heating season. That gap is when the valve work is easiest to schedule, and it is commonly folded into the rental turnover package so the unit only goes out of service once.

None of this makes a house immune. Supply lines fail, appliances fail, and storms do what storms do. What the work buys you is fewer failure points, valves that close when you need them to, and a written record of what was checked and when. That is a better position than the one most houses are in.

What to have ready

• Clear access under every sink, which usually means emptying two cabinets
• Space to pull the washing machine forward about two feet
• A hose bibb or floor drain near the water heater for the flush
• Knowledge of where your main shut off is, or ten minutes for us to find it
• A note of any fixture that has ever dripped, however briefly

Knowing where the main shut off lives is worth more than everything else on this page combined. We show every client in the house where it is and how to close it before we leave, because the person who can shut the water off in 30 seconds never has the flood story to tell.

One question comes up on nearly every one of these visits, so it is worth answering here. People ask whether replacing valves is worth doing if the house is going on the market soon. It is, and for a reason that has nothing to do with comfort. A weeping stop valve under a vanity is exactly the sort of thing an inspector photographs, and it lands on the buyer’s repair addendum at a price nobody negotiates down. Handling it beforehand is cheaper than handling it during a sale, which is the same logic behind our pre listing package.

Booking it, and what pairs with it

This one is not seasonal, which makes it a good winter booking when the outdoor work has stopped. Clients often pair it with fall winterization in October, or with the fire and carbon monoxide package when the house is being brought up to standard all at once. Everything here runs through the repairs and service side.

Work carries the coverage in our workmanship warranty, and the valves and hoses carry their own manufacturer terms. Nothing on the list requires a permit. If a larger project is coming, the way we run a project sets out how the two fit together.

Want to see how our crews finish the bigger work? View our Portfolio for completed builds across Southeast Michigan. When you want this on the calendar, contact us now for a free quote, or book a consultation and we will walk the house with you.