Montana Winters Lead To Water Damage Cleanup

Big Sky winters are both beautiful and blustery. As a Billings homeowner, you must perpetually prepare for winter and prevent the main causes of winter water damage. While these steps might take time and a little money, it’s still cheaper than your homeowner’s insurance deductible. 

Water Damage Cleanup In Billings

Remove Snow And Ice BEFORE Damage

Not properly removing snow and ice from your home can lead to winter water damage. While it is common to clear your driveways and sidewalks, are you making sure snow and ice are removed from the roof? When snow is left on your roof, it can create an edge on your roof, preventing melting now from draining off the roof properly–an ice dam. The melted snow collects on unheated eaves and starts freezing, creating ice dams. If you don’t prevent or remove ice dams, the result will be winter water damage to your roof and home.

Have your gutters and downspouts cleaned, inspected, and repaired before the snow starts to settle. Remove the snow on your roof when it’s about six inches deep. Use a roof rake or a long-handled brush to remove the snow without a ladder.

If your home has a basement, move snow and ice away from any basement windows. Leaks can happen very easily, and oftentimes, that kind of leak isn’t covered by homeowner’s insurance. If melting snow gets into the cracks and freezes, that freezing causes expansion, which can lead to some major water damage to your foundation and inside, resulting in costly cleanup costs.

Don’t Let Your Pipes Freeze

A frozen water pipe can, at minimum, deform and weaken your pipes, but it could also cause too much pressure — breaking it. Typically, you don’t notice a broken pipe until it thaws and you have water everywhere. The most worrisome areas are 1) outside your house and 2) inside without access to heat: garage, under cabinets, or basement.

• So practice prevention. Make sure all exposed pipes are properly insulated. Pipe sleeves are not that expensive (much cheaper than your insurance deductible.) When you know the temps are going to drop, open any cabinets that will allow warm air to get to the pipes. Keep your garage door closed.
• Lastly, check outside before you abandon the garden. Make sure your hoses are disconnected from your spigots. You don’t want them to burst over the winter.

Call The Water Damage Cleanup Experts

If you happen to find yourself in a situation where water does enter your home and cause damage, remember to act fast, as the longer the water sits, the more damage it has the potential to cause. If you’re leaving home for more than two days, leave the heat on in your home. Set the temperature to no lower than 55 °F. Shut off the water supply and drain pipes and appliances that use water. In addition, have someone you trust check your home once per week. If you return home to a wet mess, call the water damage cleanup team at Faithful Cleaning immediately. 

No matter the severity of your water damage or flood, every minute that passes has the potential to cause more damage to your home. It is so important that you choose specialists capable of answering your emergency both quickly and proficiently. And with Faithful Cleaning’s 24 hour phone service you can get support immediately.

When you choose the water damage cleanup team at Faithful Disaster Restoration, you have a full service certified disaster recovery general contractor with the ability to take your project from the emergency call, to boarding up your structure, through complete water damage cleanup. With years of experience and training, they will restore as many of your belongings as possible and work closely with your insurance company. In Billings, call us for help, advice and support after your fire.