Solutions for Three Primary Business Winter Water Threats
Preventing winter water damage from adversely affecting your business properties is a challenge you must address sooner rather than later. Effective winter water damage avoidance requires pre-season planning, daily monitoring, and maintenance, in addition to the constant vigilance successful business owners pay to any looming water damage concerns.
What Winter Water Damage Looks Like
The challenges of winter weather typically present as three water damage "wet spots."
- Frozen Pipes
When exposed to temperatures below 32 degrees, the fluids in plumbing supply and waste lines can freeze. Water expands when frozen, causing the pipes to endure immense pressure from the inside, eventually resulting in cracks or ruptures. Connections and fittings can burst loose from the pressure. Once this physical phase melts, water and waste escape and flood, soaking and damaging building materials and creating mold-friendly conditions.
- Heavy Precipitation Accumulations
Snow, sleet, and ice build up on roofs, overhangs, or pavements around commercial buildings and cause water damage. Ceilings can leak at best or collapse at worst, and concrete, tiles, or other paving materials covered with ice and snow can buckle. Slip-and-fall hazards create liability concerns, an indirect way winter water damage can adversely affect your business's reputation and profitability.
- Meltwater Flooding
As the ice and snow melt--periodically during unexpected mid-winter thaws or as spring arrives--water caught in icy pools near foundations can seep inside. If spring rains arrive before snow and ice piles are gone, additional moisture can turn seepage into flooding.
Be Proactive Against Winter Water Damage
Devising preventive measures to thwart this trio of common threats will secure your property against the onslaught of freezing temperatures and sloppy, snowy precipitation. Lightspeed Restoration recommends the following approaches to prevent winter water damage and also offers immediate and effective interventions your business can implement immediately, avoiding or at least minimizing the devastating effects.
- Insulate and Warm Pipes
- It can be difficult to position all plumbing lines in heated areas of your commercial building, but try to create a warm flow of air adjacent to pipelines that keeps temperatures above freezing.
- Insulate both the spaces pipes thread through and the pipes themselves. Heated wraps and faucet covers are available and are worth the purchase cost and the effort to install.
- Seal windows and doors to keep freezing drafts out, with the bonus of reducing heating costs while protecting pipes.
- Monitor Roofs and Other Structures and Areas for Excessive Snow Load
Your commercial building's roof and drainage systems, including gutters and downspouts, require year-round inspection, maintenance, and repairs to operate correctly under all conditions. The weight and pressure of unyielding snow and ice loads demand intensive intervention, especially when the frozen precipitation begins melting.
- Throughout the season, snow and ice removal is imperative for roofs, overhangs, driveways, parking areas, and walkways.
- Consider investing in heating coils for roofs or under-pavement warming to reduce and help evaporate snow and ice buildup.
- Create a Drainage Plan for Foundation-Level Meltwater
- Piles of frozen ice and snow can force meltwater to seep or flood into lower or ground levels through foundations, entry or garage/storage area doors, egress windows, and more. Throughout the winter, snow and ice must be removed to prevent this, including designing drainage "waterways" that move the melting fluids away from the building.
- A sump pump system can help remove water that seeps in during the melt or other times when overland flooding poses a threat.
Commercial property owners must monitor the conditions of pipes, roofs, and foundation-level drainage from late fall to early spring for cold weather issues. Without diligent management, water damage from frozen plumbing, snow and ice overloads, and out-of-control melting can cause significant damage. Lightspeed Restoration offers tips to prevent winter water devastation and can provide rapid response if prevention plans go awry.