Last Thursday I awoke abruptly to the sound of a loud alarm going off in my home. I sat up and my mind quickly raced through possible scenarios – Fire? No, not the right tone. Carbon monoxide? No, that sounds like the smoke alarm… Radon samplers? No, they are all out in customer’s homes right now. Wait, water?!? Yes, WATER!
I ran down to my basement utility closet and discovered a backup quickly rising from the central floor drain. The water alarm positioned on the floor at the base of my water heater detected the backup and had alerted me with enough time to prevent an irritating problem from becoming a potential disaster. (As it turned out, I was about to experience an ordeal regarding a broken sewer line, but at least the fetid water was confined to a small concrete area within the house!)
Circled in this photo, is the star of our story, a water-sensing alarm. This was positioned by the water heater and boiler (furnace) as a precaution, but in this case, it detected a sewer back-up from the floor drain.
This little box circled above is a water-sensing alarm and over the years, it has become a standard recommendation during our residential home inspections. This device is similar to a smoke alarm, but instead of smoke, when it senses water it sounds a piercing tone. This can alert an occupant of a water problem, often before it becomes an outright flood. Water heaters (the subject of a future post…) are prone to leaking with age. As they are often located in dusty utility closet or tucked in the back corner of a basement, leaky units can go undetected for a long period of time. This can lead to all sorts of problems, such as drywall damage, mold, even health concerns from thirsty pets coming to investigate.
We recommend protecting your home by placing one of these water sensing alarms on the floor in your utility closet and/or near your water heater. They are carried at the major big-box hardware stores but sometimes can be hard to find on the shelves. Sometimes they can be found stocked near the smoke alarms, which makes sense, but more often I’ve found them tucked way back in the far a corner of the plumbing section. They typically cost under $15 including a single 9v battery.
This is a popular model which features a detachable, wired probe in the base, permitting the meter to be installed at a convenient height above the floor. (Specific model depicted for illustration purposes only, AFI is not affiliated with Glentronics, Inc.)
There is an old expression which I am fond of: “The shoemaker’s children run barefoot.” I have always interpreted that to mean that we often don’t follow our own advice, or make use of the skills which we share with others, for ourselves. I’ve been recommending water alarms to my clients for years, and I am grateful that I followed my own advice!