Water Damage Prevention Checklists

Almost everything we are called out to was preventable, and usually by an afternoon of work costing less than a deductible.

The components that fail are consistent and cheap to replace: braided supply lines, washing machine hoses, angle stops and water heaters, all installed with the house and all with service lives well under the age of the buildings they sit in. In a tract built over a few years they reach the end of those lives together, which is why one street can produce the same failure repeatedly.

The other half is drainage. Downspouts discharging beside a foundation, yard drains full of a summer's debris, grading that has settled toward the wall — these are what let storm water inside, and all of them are an October job rather than a February emergency. The checklists here are ordered by return, so the highest-value items come first.