How to Detect Water Damage in Your Home

5/14/2021 (Permalink)

When these homeowners noticed paint on their kitchen ceiling was starting to bubble from water damage, they knew it was time to call the experts!

There are two types of water damage that could be in your home: visible water damage, which the type you can blatantly see in the form of water leaking from the ceiling or puddles from a flood, and hidden water damage that is lurking behind your walls, in your rugs, or inside your ceiling. 

The first type of water damage is easy to spot, but the second is more insidious. Even though you can’t see hidden water damage right in front of you, there are ways you can tell if there might be water damage in your home that needs to be addressed.

• A new musty scent. If your closet, basement, or one of your rooms starts smelling musty, there may be hidden water damage that resulted in mildew or mold. 
• Bubbles in the paint of your ceiling. Yes, these could be just from steam in your bathroom forming a coat of moisture, especially if they’re on top of your shower, but they could also be caused by water that collected in your ceiling and is popping through the ceiling as a bubble. This is particularly bad if it’s not a pin-sized dot of a bubble and is instead the size of a dinner plate or larger. That water damage should be remediated immediately.
• Peeling or stained paint on your wall. This is the same as bubbles on the ceiling, except that in this case, the paint could be flaking off or stained from water that has collected in between your drywall and the layers of paint. 
• An increase in your water bill. Stay on top of what you pay each month. If it has suddenly increased without any uptick in water usage, you could have a hidden water leak. 

Think there’s hidden water damage in your home and you want to be sure? Reach out to the Massachusetts water damage remediation experts at SERVPRO of Haverhill / Newburyport. We have state of the art technology to assess and spot the water damage you can’t see and to restore your home to its pre-water damage state.