by Mike Milliman

Water just may be your home’s worst enemy; and it’s a sneaky, insidious foe. Your home could have a slow leak for weeks before you see the first signs of damage.
Take the case of my friend Tom, who recently spotted a strange puddle outside his brand new townhome. For some reason a small, hand-sized pool of water would sometimes appear on his back porch next to the bedroom wall. He didn’t think much of it, until he spotted water stains on his inside wall, directly opposite the puddle. Uh-oh.
When workmen pried the planks off his exterior wall, they found a PVC drainpipe that had been sliced-through during construction. Workers installing the hardy plank exterior during construction had trimmed the planks in place with a power saw, not noticing that there were slashing the drain pipe in the process. The entire time Tom had lived in his home, water had been leaking into his wall.
Unless you are alert for small signs like this, water damage can go unchecked, emerging only when it has caused serious damage to your home.
The key is to spot telltale signs of damage before they turn into big problems. Here are a few things for which you should be on the lookout.
Finding Interior Leaks
Leaks can happen anywhere inside your home, but they are most likely to occur where water pipes and drains connect to appliances. That means your kitchen, bathroom and laundry room are the most likely problem areas.
1) Water Stains
Stains on your drywall are the most obvious sign of interior water damage. Check your window frames and exterior door frames for any sign stains, and apply caulk or molding as needed.
Any unusual stain on your interior walls should be investigated immediately since, as my friend Tom learned, they could be a sign of a leaky pipe or drain inside the wall.
2) Warping or Buckling Floors
Also keep an eye out for any buckling or warping of your wooden floors. Even if your home doesn’t have hardwood floors, vinyl, tile surfaces and carpets are often installed on top of a wooden particle board layer that will swell and warp when exposed to water.
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