Turnstone recommends leak detection systems for vacation homes

The extremely cold weather in early January created havoc for many unlucky homeowners who suffered broken water lines. Last month, Turnstone Custom Homes received a call from one of those homeowners while she was hurrying to the beach to assess the damage after receiving a call from a neighbor about water coming from her home. Water damage is a tremendous problem, but there is a fail-safe solution.

One study estimated that homeowners could eliminate up to $8.5 billion a year in property damage if they only deployed an automatic water leak-detection and shutoff system to prevent or reduce damage from water. Water caused $9.1 billion in annual homeowner policy property losses from 2007 to 2009 – approximately 23 percent of all homeowner property losses during that period. But up to 93 percent of the cost of water damage could have been prevented if an automatic water leak detection and shutoff system had been present in the homes, according to an ACE Private Risk Services study of damage sustained by affluent homeowners. ACE Private Risk Services is the high-net-worth personal lines business of the ACE Group.

Turnstone has seen the destruction firsthand. Two years ago, one of its clients got the call a homeowner never wants to receive – a neighbor said there was water pouring from the third floor of her unoccupied, ocean-block summer home. The leak is likely to have happened because a guest failed to firmly latch an exterior door leading to a storage closet on the roof deck. Extremely strong winds battered the door for days, causing it to partially break off its hinges. Then several days of strong winds and extremely low temperatures caused a pipe leading to an exterior hose bib to burst. The water ran for many hours before the alert neighbor called the owner. It was the worst-case scenario – the leak was on the roof deck, and water ran through all three floors of the house.

The repair costs exceeded $130,000. Fortunately, the customer had excellent homeowner's insurance. But before the claim could be processed, the owner had to prove that her heating system was functioning at the time of the leak. If not, the loss would not have been covered.

The insurance company had a program to subsidize the cost of leak-detection systems. Their claims adjuster put Turnstone in touch with a third-party company that they use to recommend the best system for each situation. Turnstone learned that there are two major types of systems. The first type uses leak detectors placed strategically throughout the house. When one of these detectors senses water, it will shut off the water main, minimizing the amount of damage. The second type of system senses unusual duration and/or volume of water flow and shuts off the water main when a leak is suspected. Turnstone spent a fair amount of time assessing the pros and cons of each system and decided on a flow-based system manufactured by FloLogic Inc.

Many of Turnstone's customers' homes are unoccupied during the winter months. What sold Turnstone on this system is the fact that it automatically goes into shutoff mode when there is no water demand for a predetermined period – they chose 18 hours. There is also a manual override button the homeowner can use when exiting the property. The 18-hour automatic shutoff is the failsafe that protects the property when the owner (or their guest) forgets to use the manual override. Turnstone placed the keypad right next to the security system keypad, making it simple to secure the property when leaving.

Flood remediation in a luxury home is complex and time-consuming. Turnstone had to scramble to get the home ready for Memorial Day weekend. Had this leak occurred later in the winter, it is likely the customer would have been without the use of her home for part of the summer. Turnstone strongly recommends that all its second-home customers consider installing a system like the FloLogic system. In fact, every homeowner should consider such a system. 

For more information about options to protect the home, contact Turnstone Custom Homes at 302-227-8876 or go to www.tchde.com.