Figuring Out the Age of a Water Spot – Water Damage Repair

One of the more persistent complications a house can sustain is water damage. As water damage repair professionals, Paul Davis knows the complications that water damage generates, especially when it isn’t in sight. Your property has plumbing running throughout it, this includes the inside of your walls and ceilings. When these pipes leak or have condensation on them, they can slowly erode your walls and ceilings. One of the more difficult aspects to this is finding out whether the damage caused by water is old or new.

It’s complicated to check how old the water damage is for these spaces that can’t be seen. Nevertheless, you could have a pipe that’s been slightly leaking for awhile but because it’s been hidden, you don’t have a timeline. There’s no way to check exactly how long the problem has persisted, but there are ways to approximate the age of the water damage.

Find Out the Lifetime of Your Water Damage

Listed below are step-by-steps you can take to determine the time frame of your water damage:

  • History of the House: An older house may already have some previous damage caused from water, so it’s fundamental to keep track of what’s there and to note if the damage alters overtime. Keeping track of the weather is a great idea too, since, if you have a small leak, it can take some time for a spot to surface. Taking note of your water spots and damages can save you a lot of hassle when figuring out whether the damage caused from water is old or new.
  • History of the House: Keep track of any spots on your walls or ceilings and take into account any outside influences like heavy rain. Damages and spots caused by water can take months to occur if the leak is small. An older house may have some water spots that were sustained previously. So it’s fundamental to take note of the spots you see while finding out whether this is new water damage or old water damage.
  • Touch the Spot: You can feel the spot, because this can reveal a lot about the age of the damage caused by water. A new spot will be wet but your ceiling or drywall will still be durable, while an old spot will be soft and spongy since your material would have absorbed a fair amount of water.
  • Look for Rings: You know how tree rings indicate how old a tree is? The same method can be used towards water spots. An old water spot will have rings around it. They can also be shaded differently because the spot gets soaked then dries and gets soaked again then dries again, etcetera. A new spot will be dark with no rings around it.
  • Examine the Materials: Get to know the material in your house, because water can become trapped by thick paint and tiles. And if water spots show up through these, this means the buildup of water has been lingering for awhile.
  • Mold Inspection: When mold has had time to inhabit the area, this indicates that your water damage has lingered for about two to three days.
  • Decomposition: Decomposed material means that your water damage is either occurring on a regular basis or that it’s extensive because there’s standing water. A first instance of damage caused by water typically won’t lead to deterioration.

Water Damage Repair Contractors – Contact Paul Today

The size of your water damage doesn’t matter, Paul Davis is here to help. Our team of professional water damage repair technicians can fix the problem and have your house in a great state. Remedy the problem today before it gets in a worse condition and call us at (845) 651-1850 for a local franchise in your location.