What to do if my house is flooded with water?
Damage from water leaks are among the most harmful for our home. In fact, arriving at our home and finding the flooded house it’s quite an unpleasant experience.
In these situations, many people do not know how to act to stop the flood and minimize its effects. Therefore, we are going to explain step by step everything you need to know.
Reasons why you can find your house flooded
Some of the most common causes that cause a flood son:
The toilet leaks water from the base due to a crack or leak. The electric water heater loses water due to a leak or sealing failure. A pipe has a leak, crack or has burst. Some appliance connected to the hydraulic network, such as the washing machine, does not work correctly. A upstairs neighbor has suffered a previous flood and the water has leaked into our house.
A natural flood has taken place due to the rains.
What to do if you find your house flooded
The first thing we should do is try to cut off the power supply to the home. This way we will avoid short circuits or electrocutions. This step is essential, especially if your home has many home appliances o home automation installations. Keep calm and quickly close the stopcock of the water . If when closing the stopcock we see that the water stops moving or its flow decreases, it is likely that the leak originates from our house.
If we have not managed to stop the water by closing the stopcock, it may come from another home or from the community facility.
What to do if I find my house flooded?
Next, we must locate the origin following the reverse course of the water until finding it. Kitchen and bathrooms will be the places that we must examine. For this, we will go step by step, ruling out one by one the causes that we have seen, until we find the one that caused the flood. If it comes from outside our house, you must contact the neighbor and inform him of what happened. It is important to always have the contact of the neighbors for these cases. Then, to minimize the damage caused by water -and avoid leaks to other neighbors- we must collect as much water as possible. For that we can help ourselves with buckets, mops and cloths.
Coping with repairs to a flooded house
Whatever the cause, to repair the incidentwe will have to call our insurance. This point is essential, because they will tell us how to act and they will send a professional to our home to help us.
It should be noted that acting outside the insurance company can be inconvenient. Acting on our own and hiring a plumber without complying with what is established in our policy may result in the company refusing to cover the repair.
In theory, The insurance of the deceased must cover the damages produced in most situations. If necessary, and they do not take charge, we must take action and write a claim
Conclusion: what to do in case of water leaks and flooding
First of all, we must keep calm, close the stopcock, locate the source, collect the water and call the insurance. We must manage the procedures for plumbers and repairs through insurance to avoid surprises.
Also, remember that having a way to contact neighbors is very important in these situations.
If you want to protect yourself from future floods, it is important to have the necessary security measures. In this sense, the best option is install anti-loss detectorswhich detect any water, fire or gas problem.
If you found this content interesting, you may also find it useful:
How to make an emergency plan against fires at home?
What to do in the event of an earthquake if I am at home?
Are there flood or water detectors?
The entrance What to do if I find my house flooded? appears first on the Prosegur Blog.
