Rains are the best blessing the Earth could ever have but those water drops, if not maintained properly, could harm the structure of your ultimate comfort zone in this world. We should be very careful and we must protect our home at all costs. Today we are going to explore different ways to stop seepage in homes and make the space ever living for our generations to come.
1. Waterproofing
- Explanation: It is the process of making a structure or an object resistant to water, and the insulated surface resists the water ingress. It creates an invisible barrier to prevent water passage through the surfaces with high water accumulation density. Under the external forces such as hydrostatic pressure and capillarity, the water could pass on the surfaces but the proactive measure of waterproofing makes the surface water-resistant and prevents liquids from penetrating to undesirable locations.
- Cement Based Waterproofing: It is made possible by mixing and applying cement-based materials. Mainly used in interior spaces where the water density is higher like toilets and bathrooms. This type of waterproofing probably will not be exposed to sunlight and weather conditions because it only has full or semi resilience. It is a cement and acrylic based two-component water and moisture insulation material which works best in home conditions.
- Liquid Waterproofing Membrane Materials: The membrane consists of a thin coating, usually of a primer and the other two coats applied by spray, trowel or roller. It is used more intensively today because it offers more flexibility than cement-based waterproofing types. The durability solely depends on the polymer type the manufacturer used to create the membrane, probably a polymer modified asphalt. Many varieties are available today of separate grades like acrylic, hybrid or polyurethane liquid membranes for roller, trowel or spray.
- Liquid Bituminous Membrane: In accordance with the formulation and degree of polymerization, the coating can be used and its flexibility can be mainly understood by the polymer grade and fiber from which it is produced. This type of pavement is also called Asphalt pavement and such as in concrete foundations, it is an excellent waterproofing material. And works well in areas like under the screed as well.
2. Seal Gaps
- Like joints and openings, sealants are used to stop liquids and other substances from passing through the surface. These are also used to prevent the passage of air, sound, dust and insects and fire spread can be stopped with the help of non-flammable sealants.
- Like materials such as concrete, timber or mortar some spaces are too small for them to cover and in those situations, we use a sealant. They tend to have lower strength and higher elongation because some sealants have adhesive qualities but they are quite different from adhesives.
- Traditionally the home walls are huge and bulky but in modern times those aspects are eliminated in favor for airy, minimalistic designs that mainly use lightweight masonry walls, rainscreens, renders and curtain wall systems. Such as thermal expansion, settlements and the building movements are made possible by appropriate sealants because they provide weather and air seals.
3. Install Leak Detectors
- By closing a valve within the leak detector, the system cuts off the water flow to the entire household, when abnormal behavior is detected, because the leak detection system monitors the flow of water through the pipeline.
- We install the system probably in the water entry point of a home. In this way, we can protect the whole home from disastrous and expensive damage, because no matter the problem, water flow can be shut off from every water-using fixture and appliances.
- Situations like when the toilet flapper got jammed, a tub is left running too long or a fitting bursts behind a wall, the system quickly identifies the escalation in water usage and because of it is programmable, it can be operable through mobile apps and it will send you alerts when they detect irregular water flow and you can shut off the valve even if you are not at home or when you having a vacation, making your home safety hustle free.
- These leak detectors give real time feedback about pipe freezing as well. Pipes will get cracks if they go under freezing temperatures and your leak detection system will assess that and eliminate the water flow until the pipe reaches back to normal temperature. This is an advanced feature of leak detectors and works well in winter climates.
4. Know Your Shut-Off Valve
- During emergencies, repairs or upgrades, water shut off valves turn off water to specific areas or your entire home. It is compulsory to understand the shut off valves we use for our homes. We will talk in detail about that soon or in the coming blogs. From individual fixtures such as faucets and toilets to your home’s entire water system, it can control anything and are fittings mainly used in home plumbing.
- They work generally in one of two ways: Either a stem with a washer or seal squeezes down to stop water flow, or a solid internal part rotates to open or block the flow of water. As a homeowner, you should understand where your home’s main water shut off valve is, and be mindful about the other valves as well, both indoors and outdoors. And those valves control every single fixture water flows from your home, garden hoses, and sprinkler systems.
5. Maintain Drainage
- This water system carries away a home’s used water to the sewage collector and simply put, it is like all the used water leaving your property through a special kind of piping. It mostly works only in one principle; the gravity, because it is closer to a vertical pipe your drainage system is, the faster and easier it will flow away without much clutter produced.
- While a horizontal drain eventually builds up to a blockage because of soap and grease residues and causes issues in the pipe systems, in that case your drainage needs to be taken care of well and always keep in mind to maintain a healthy drainage system.
- When you flush the toilet or turn on the water faucet, the wastewater first passes through a small pipe that is located in your house. After that, it connects to a larger sewer pipe that is located beneath the road. Finally, this sewage joins a network of municipal sewers, all of which lead to a sewage treatment facility.
6. Insulate Pipes
- It helps you stop the pipes from freezing because the insulation is done by a foam tube that goes around the exposed pipes traveling from your boiler to hot water tank or generally speaking, a protective material that is wrapped around flow lines. For longer periods of time your warmer water will stay hot because the foam tube will stop the heat coming off the pipe from escaping.
- There are many insulation materials used but the most common types include mineral and glass wool, rubber, polyethene, fiberglass and foam. You can flexibly use the materials largely based on your location, temperature and size of your pipes. The main purpose of insulating the water pipes is to maintain the fluid temperature inside the pipelines.
- The main advantage is that it provides an extra protection layer for your pipelines, which helps increase energy efficiency, protects the tube and lower long-term maintenance costs. It also helps to reduce condensation, freezing and heat loss as well.