A water leak is a common problem and every homeowner faces this problem once or twice a year. Sometimes if you fail to detect the water leak at an early stage it can deteriorate your home by making cracks or increasing moisture in the house.

So, it is important to detect the water leaks as soon as possible and then repair the leak at the earliest. With that, you should also take some preemptive measures or precautions to stop these water leaks in the future.

The best thing in this regard, that you can do, is to contact a professional plumbing service. But if you want to do it yourself, there keep on reading:

How to Detect Water Leaks?

Obviously, the first step is to detect the water leak in your house. If you don’t know that you have a problem then how can you fix it?

Water Leaks in Exposed Pipes

Well, for the exposed pipes, it is very important to detect the leak as you just need to inspect the pipes of your house once a week. Have a round in all the rooms, bathrooms, kitchen, floors, and the basement and check the exposed pipes and taps individually.

Don’t leave the taps and pipes under the dishwasher or a kitchen sink. If you make it your routine, you will detect any water leak as soon as it happens and then you can repair it.

Detect Water Leaks in Underground Pipes

But what to do with the underground pipes which are installed in the walls or under the floors? Well, it is easy to detect the water leaks in those pipes as well.

• You can use a smart water leak detector like LeakBot or you can find many other options on Amazon or eBay. Use these smart devices to detect water leaks.
• If you don’t have access to this, then you should keep an eye on your overall water usage and water bill. If in a month without any extra usage, your water bill increases significantly then it means you have a water leak somewhere.
• In another case, if you don’t want to wait for a month then you should check your water storage tank level and switch off the water refilling pump. Turn off all the taps in the house even the taps of the toilet tank. Don’t use a single drop of water at your home. After 3 to 4 hours check the water level again in your water storage tank. If it shows a drop in level it indicates a water leak at your home.
• There are some signs as well that tells you that you have water leaks from the underground pipes. For example, if your wooden floor bends or paint is peel or you see the formation of mold on the wall, wet spots on the wall then all these signs indicate a water leak at those points.
• In case you are not able to detect the water leak, you can get the help of a plumber who is expert and certified for the detection of water leaks.

DIY Tips For Repairing Water Leaks

If the joints of plastic or other pipes are leaked then it is easy to repair the leaking yourself. But for the big problems like water leaks from underground pipes or water leaks from the bottom of the toilet, you need to get help from the experts.

To start any plumbing repairing work, you need to turn off the main water pump that refills the water tank and also close the valve that brings water into the pipes from the water tank. Also, close any pipes in the garden as well.

• You can use Epoxy to seal any leakage from the pipes. To do this, you need to read the instruction manual on the epoxy you buy and should make no mistake in preparing the mixture. Now apply the epoxy to the point from where it is leaking. Make sure that the pipe is not wet and there is no water flowing from the pipe. Let it dry for some time and then turn on the water supply.
• If you have a rubber or plastic pipe that is leaking, you can adopt different methods to seal the leaking. It depends on the material of the pipe. Some pipes can be repaired by putting another cut piece of the same material and then heat that spot. Due to heat, both the pipe will melt a bit and the leaking spot will be fixed.
• For some kind of joints, you just need to open the joint by using your plumbing repair kit and wrap the joints with a simple thread or replace the damaged washer and fix the joints again. Your water leak is fixed now.

For other complicated tasks, you need to call an expert plumber for the repair of water leaks.

Preemptive Measures to Stop Water Leaks

Here we have some precautions or preemptive measures that can help us to stop water leaks in the house too often. You just need to follow a few things, a few dos’ and don’ts and you will get rid of moisture and water leaks in the house.

Install a Flow Sensor

A flow sensor can be installed with your plumbing and it can automatically detect the water leak in the plumbing. If there is a detection of water leak it will turn off the water supply to all the house or to specific areas and appliances. These sensors are available from $75 to a thousand dollars depending on their functionality and the areas they cover.

Add Pipe Insulation

It is important to insulate the pipes especially in the winters or in cold areas. The insulated pipes will don’t allow the water to freeze in the winter. Frozen water is the main cause of plumbing leaks in many cases. Insulation tubes for the pipes are available for as low as 40 cents per foot.

Don’t Use Exposed Pipes for Other Purposes

Many people use the exposed pipes as hangers or to put the useless object in the house over these exposed pipes to save some space. Some people use these pipes as hangers to hang the clothes after washing. Don’t do this. It can weaken the pipes that can result in a plumbing leak.

Don’t Overload Sink Cabinets

In some plumbing systems, the pipes and taps are directly attached to the sink cabinets. When you put a lot of stuff on the sink cabinets, pressure on the drain and the pipes increases that can result in loosening the connections. This pressure can also create plumbing leaks from the joints.

If you take care of these few things, you’ll not face the problem of water leaks. And even if you do at some time, you can detect it early and can apply these DIY water leak fixes. Or at least you can call an expert for the underground plumbing problems.