Most expensive water damage is not dramatic - it is a $6 supply line dripping for three months. Once a month, spend fifteen minutes: look under every sink, behind the toilets, at the water heater base, and at the washer hoses. Feel for dampness; look for mineral crust and rust blooms that mark slow weeps.
Add the subdivision rounds to the checklist. In Sterling Park: a lateral camera pass after any backup, and a meter read with the house quiet twice a year, because sixty year old lines announce themselves in bills first. In Cascades era homes: the second floor laundry's hoses and pan on an annual look, and the water heater's age written on its jacket. Everywhere: the sump pit checked each spring, and window wells cleared before the summer cells, because a well full of leaves is a funnel aimed at a basement window.
Meter trick: note your water meter reading last thing at night with everything off, then check it first thing in the morning. A changed reading with no use means water is going somewhere it should not.
Replace rubber washer hoses on a schedule, not after a failure - braided stainless lines are cheap insurance. And know where your main shutoff is before you need it at 3 a.m.; finding it is a daylight job.
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