Methods to Detect if Your Water Damage is Old or New

When you have clogged toilets, sinks or bathtubs that flood, you know that you’re in need of water damage restoration. Unfortunately, your property can experience water damage in ways that aren’t as distinct. Because you have pipes running through your home, you can have a leaky pipe or a buildup of condensation between your ceilings and walls. It’s a troublesome circumstance since this isn’t in sight- you won’t notice it until you there’s water damage, and then it’s difficult to define how long the problem has lingered.

It’s hard to establish how old or new the water damage is for these spaces that can’t be seen. After all, you could have a leaky pipe that was slightly dripping for awhile but because it’s been concealed, you don’t know how long. There’s no way to find out exactly how long the problem has persisted, but there are approaches to approximate the age of the water damage.

A Step-by-Step On Water Damage – Determine its Time Frame

By practicing the tips listed below, you’ll be able to indicate how old or new the damage caused by water:

  • History of the House: Keep track of any spots on your ceiling or walls and take into account any strong weather you had in your location such as a heavy rain storm. Damages and spots caused by water can take months to occur if it’s a slight leak. An older house could already have some water spots and damages that were sustained previously. So it’s critical to take note of the spots you perceive while indicating whether this is old water damage or old water damage.
  • History of the House: An older property could already have some previous damage provoked from water, so it’s effective to keep track of what’s there and to note if the damage alters over a period of time. Tracking the weather is a great idea too, since, if you have a a slow leak, it can take months for a spot to appear. Taking note of your water spots and damages can save you lots of time when determining whether the damage generated from water is old or new.
  • Touch the Spot: Go ahead and touch the spot, because this will reveal a lot about the age of the damage generated by water. A new spot will be wet but your ceiling or drywall will still be the same, while an old spot will be mushy and squishy since your material would have taken in a good amount of moisture.
  • Look for Rings: Outlining rings around the damaged spot generated by water shows its age. Consider it as if it was a tree- the more rings, the older the damage generated by water is. Color variations of the spot is useful because it indicates that the area gets soaked, dries, gets saturated, dries, so on and so forth. If it’s a new spot caused by water, the area will be a single stain with no rings around it.
  • Examine the Materials: Get to know the material in your house, because water and moisture can become trapped by thick paint and tiles. So if spots generated by water show up through these types of materials, this indicates the buildup of moisture has remained for a period of time.
  • Mold Inspection: If you see that bacteria is present, the damage generated by water has been there for approximately two to three days.
  • Deterioration: Deteriorated material indicates that the damage generated by water is either happening on a regular basis or that it’s serious because there’s standing water. A first case of damage generated by water typically won’t cause decomposition.

Contact Paul – Your Expert Water Damage Restoration Contractors

If you’re having water damage problems, look no further than Paul Davis. It’s important to fix any dripping pipes in your house prior to the damage becoming more serious. Our water damage restoration experts can find a leak and fix your house back to normal no matter how big or small the job is. Contact Paul today at (712) 525-4248 and near your area will be there to assist you.