So, you found a water puddle in your home and you don’t know where it came from. So what do you do? If this has never happened to you, you may rightfully be panicked and not know what to do. However, the first rule to any crisis situation is pretty much the same – don’t panic.

We consulted water damage professionals at Risk Free Serv from San Diego to tell us what the best course of action is during this hypothetical situation. This is what they suggest.

Rule Out Simple Things

Before you run and call an emergency plumber (whose services might cost you a pretty penny regardless of the seriousness of the problem), consider how the water could have gotten there in the first place. It is not uncommon for these situations to be just a water spill. If you have children, it is possible that they spilled some water; it is also possible that an adult did the same thing, but didn’t clean up for whatever reason.

On the other hand, it could also be the runoff from your AC which was not directed properly. This happens quite often with mini-split AC systems. If, however, it’s none of the simple things you can think of, it may be time to call in slab leak professionals.

Burst Pipe

If the water is not only pooled on your floor, but the amount of water keeps growing, it is very likely that you have a burst pipe somewhere in your home. If you know where the pipes go through in your home, you may also be able to pinpoint which pipe it is, making it a lot easier for the professionals to fix the situation.

Even if you don’t know that much, you can still shut off the water in your home by turning the water main valve off – that much you should know about your home’s water system. Then, call in the experts and explain the situation to them.

More likely than not, water damage professionals will be able to identify the burst pipe and fix it relatively quickly. However, water damage remediation may be a costlier and longer affair.

It is recommended that you take pictures and ask for a report from the water damage pros so that you can file an insurance claim.

Slab Leak

If the pipe burst somewhere in your walls, the repair process may be simple and over quickly and relatively painlessly. On the other hand, if the pipe bust somewhere under your foundation, you have a slab leak, and that can be a whole different story.

The walls of American homes are largely made out of wood and plaster, materials which are easy and relatively inexpensive to remove and repair. So taking out a section of the wall to get to the pipes inside doesn’t have to be too expensive.

However, your home’s foundation is made of solid concrete, and if a pipe burst in there, you are looking at a much more complicated problem both to fix, because it requires drilling, but also just to detect, since it requires specialized equipment.

Once the pipe is located and repaired, there is a matter of significantly more expensive repairs to your home’s foundations.

Just like with regular burst pipe, make sure to take pictures and get a full report from the slab leak detection company in order to get your insurance money.

There are some other possible causes of finding water in your home where it doesn’t belong, like heavy rain or neighbor’s water leak, but these two are by far the most likely.