Prevent Water Damage During New Construction

5/13/2020 (Permalink)

Prevent Water Damage During New Construction

New construction in Black Mountain, NC, increases the potential for water damage, and this can cause quite a few problems for commercial property owners:

• Delays in completing the project
  
• Increased costs for things such as water pipe repair
  
• Increased debris removal loads
  
• Damaged reputations of involved professionals
  
  

The right preventative steps can reduce the risks.

Pre-Construction Steps
During the pre-construction stage, professionals should run quality control reviews, such as going over plans and specifications, reading through contract documents to find areas of risk regarding water infiltration, and testing the proposed plans for water drainage.

Quality Assurance Procedures
As construction moves forward, it's important that a full-time quality director oversees procedures, as well as developing quality assurance protocols and enforcing them. This includes oversight of any subcontractors. For example, policies regarding the quality of materials can help prevent any broken pipe scenarios. Another example is the creation of a list of issues to review on a weekly basis, such as monitoring the quality of any completed water pipe repair.

Ongoing Inspections and Assessments
Frequent and consistent testing is vital to the prevention of damages, such as a flooded worksite. Water tightness testing, for example, should be performed by a roof testing expert with modern techniques. Low areas in the roofing and other flat surfaces can lead to puddling and water damage as construction materials absorb moisture. Fire protection systems should also be tested according to NFPA 13 standards.

Final Steps at Project Completion
When post-construction tasks are carried out, it's important to assign certain team members to respond immediately as issues are identified. Areas of particular vulnerability include unsecured building openings, building envelope systems, site drainage areas, water delivery, and drainage systems, subsurface drainage, the foundation, and structural elements.

When Prevention Fails
From completing any necessary water pipe repair to consistently inspecting the property for areas of vulnerability, all efforts toward preventing water damage can prevent delays and increase profits. When damages occur in spite of your efforts, water damage remediation professionals can help you get back on track.