Not every expensive home repair starts with a major problem. Many begin with a slow leak, a loose toilet, or a missing downspout extension that goes unnoticed for months.
In this week’s KFGO Morning Crew segment, we talk about some of the most common maintenance issues we see during home inspections, along with a few simple ways homeowners can catch problems early. We also discuss inexpensive water leak sensors that can alert you before a small leak turns into a costly insurance claim.
Listen now and learn how a few simple maintenance habits can help protect your home.
Schedule a professional home inspection with Nordic Inspections. Book on our website or call us today at 701.566.1446 ext. 0
Why You Should Put In Water Sensors In Your Home.
September 10th, 2026
(0:00) Good morning, it’s 640 the Morning Crew. It’s Doug, it’s Robbie, and it’s our friend Lars Knobloch. Good morning, Lars.(0:06) Hello. How are you? I’m doing great. Good. Lars, one of the things we’ve learned from all of our visits, (0:12) and I’d encourage people to check out the podcast, check out your Facebook page as well, is that (0:17) what you see (0:19) is one thing, but what’s causing it, where it’s coming from, something hidden, and (0:25) you told me long ago that water is one of the most frustrating and dynamic, because (0:32) you can see water dripping out of this light, and it might be coming from (0:36) someplace else in the entire building. It’s following a long electrical line. It’s just wild.(0:43) It’s tricky, and it’s a silent killer sometimes, and we look at a lot of houses, we see (0:55) what is (0:56) pretty common in houses, and people don’t understand that, because they don’t see, (1:02) they don’t inspect as many houses as we do, and (1:06) you know, (1:09) there’s things like (1:11) a little drip underneath the (1:14) sink, just from a drain pipe, (1:16) that’s been going on. Like, one of the most common things we see is actually water damage at the base of the cabinet, (1:21) or mold on the wall near the cabinet, in the bathroom, in the kitchen, (1:26) because there’s leaks there, there are drips. Over time, the gaskets go bad.(1:30) You can’t just put a bucket under there, or a paper towel, or something like that. (1:33) You should probably figure out what’s going on. It’s a good idea to try to be on top of that.(1:39) Yeah, so that’s one thing. Another one is (1:43) loose toilets. I think we’re calling that out on probably 60% of our inspections. Is that (1:50) loose toilets? Loose toilets. A toilet that’s loose. So we are very (1:55) careful when we’re testing a toilet, (1:58) to determine whether if it is loose or not. We just give it a very, put one leg on each side, (2:05) and then just give it a little nudge, very careful nudge. And that’s an easy fix, too, isn’t it? It could be. (2:13) Yeah. What happens when the toilet is loose, and a lot of times it’s very, very loose, and then you have (2:19) the wax ring, you know, that’s like a $10 or not even. (2:26) It could get pinched, and then toilets are leaking. And you may not even see it.(2:31) You may not leak on the floor if it leaks, but it leaks kind of inside the floor cavity, (2:35) underneath your hardwood or laminate floor. And people should understand that that wax ring isn’t there just to hold the toilet on. (2:43) It’s to prevent that. Yes, exactly. (2:46) So there’s a lot of little things that could have been avoided if you were on top of it. (2:51) Even something simple like a downspout extension that’s missing.(2:54) You have that. (2:58) That might be fine for months if you live in Fargo, because we don’t really have any rain. (3:04) But all of a sudden it’s going to hit hard, and then it’s going to hurt (3:08) hard.(3:10) And (3:11) yeah, I mean other things like even the dryer vent. If you don’t (3:15) sit on top of your dryer vent and clean it (3:19) frequently, (3:21) then you might make your dryer run hotter and longer, and it will cost you more money, (3:26) and it will wear out faster. And all of a sudden you have parts breaking on your dryer because you didn’t clean the vent.(3:31) Which is like $150 if you want to do it professionally. (3:35) So (3:36) there’s all these little things. (3:37) There’s something I’m going to recommend, and I start seeing some people do this.(3:44) But that is to place out water sensors in the house in some specific locations. (3:52) And you can buy water sensors now that can connect to your phone. (3:56) So they will notify you if it’s sensing any water. So having a sensor under each sink (4:04) behind the refrigerator. (4:06) Because you have that ice maker and the water line there that’s commonly (4:10) leaking. And when it does, you’re not going to know about it when it’s far too late.(4:14) Because he’s been leaking behind there for a long time. (4:18) And same underneath your dishwasher. (4:21) Oh, yeah.(4:22) It could leak underneath your dishwasher, and you may not know about it in a really long time. (4:26) Maybe it’s a slow leak, right? (4:29) Or behind the washer and the washing machine in your laundry room. (4:34) And there your sump pump.(4:35) You can buy these for $50 to $100 depending on how many extra sensors you want. (4:40) And are they easy to install? (4:42) They’re so easy to install. (4:43) You just hook them up to your phone and you put them out there.(4:46) And then they’re just letting you know. (4:48) And this is a nice safety mechanism. (4:51) And considering how fast you then will detect a leak.(4:55) Um, you will prevent yourself from, you know, an insurance claim. (5:01) You know, you say this and me as a lake home owner, (5:03) this sounds like a good thing that a lot of lake home owners should have, (5:07) too, because you’re not there every day. (5:08) Exactly. I think I think if you’re not there every day, you should even have (5:13) a temperature and humidity sensor in these homes that connects to your phone as well. (5:19) Oh, and you can set it to to what you want to be the max and the low. (5:25) So for both temperature and humidity.(5:26) So if it is outside of that that window, then then you will get an alarm on your phone saying, (5:32) oh, the temperature is too hot in your cabin or too cold. (5:36) And how often do we hear about, you know, (5:38) lake cabin owners coming out there for a disaster because the pipe burst, right? (5:44) Right. Because the furnace shut down.(5:46) I remember a home. (5:48) This was years ago. (5:49) And they would go south to Arizona for the winter.(5:51) And then you see in this is in winter, all the windows all fogged up. (5:56) That’s not a good thing. (5:57) Because a pipe had burst and they were away.(6:00) And yeah, so those sensors. (6:03) OK, so, yeah, not just lake people, but if you’re, you know, (6:06) a snowbird or something like this, this is a good idea. (6:09) For sure. I mean, they’re cheap. (6:10) But I got to say, if you’re leaving your house in the winter for longer than two days, (6:15) you should just go turn your water off at your shut off valve. (6:18) Yeah, right.(6:19) Lars Knobloch, Nordic Inspections. (6:21) When someone gets a new water heater, should it be standard to have like one of those, (6:26) what do you call it, a catch underneath it that it’s placed like in like a little tub to? (6:32) Yeah, I think it’s a good idea. (6:33) I think it depends on the location of the water heater.(6:36) A lot of times the water heater is in the mechanical room, (6:38) you know, and it is like a flow drain right next to it. (6:41) Sure. (6:41) And I don’t really see there’s a great value in that.(6:45) But it will collect the water. (6:46) And so we see some water heaters with a tray in there. (6:51) Right.(6:52) That has a sensor inside the tray too. (6:54) Oh. (6:55) So it’s all about detection.(6:58) Yeah, absolutely. (7:01) Lars Knobloch, Nordic Inspections. (7:03) When you talk about some of those sneaky little things that you just don’t see (7:08) and you just don’t know that could be happening and may be happening, (7:12) whether you’ve got the sensors or not.(7:14) On the dryer vent, you referenced that by not cleaning it could be causing it to work harder, (7:22) less efficient, breaking down parts. (7:24) How often should a dryer vent be cleaned? (7:26) And can you do it yourself or should you have a professional do it? (7:29) So I think the first question depends on how much you use it. (7:34) If you’re two people in the house, you know, and you wash, (7:38) you run a load two times a week, you know, maybe every two to three years.(7:43) For us, we’re four people in our house and we run, this thing runs every single day. (7:51) Yeah. (7:51) And we try to do it every year.(7:54) And what was the other question? (7:56) Do you do it yourself? (7:57) No, I don’t do it myself because there is a pretty good distance from the exterior dryer (8:04) vent to our dryer. (8:06) In those situations, like sometimes it’s just right there. (8:09) Like the dryer is right there.(8:10) Yeah, then I think it’s easy to do this yourself. (8:13) You can just disconnect it, get a leaf blower or something, just blow it out. (8:17) And then it gets pushed out because this is a short run.(8:21) But for mine, it goes, you know, from the outside wall, (8:25) past the bedroom and a little some and into the laundry room. (8:28) So we usually have it done professionally. (8:31) Is there, okay, this is going to sound kind of strange.(8:34) I call it the sniffer test. (8:36) When you talk about leaks and stuff like that, that there may be some water. (8:39) If we’ve been gone a couple of days or whatever, (8:42) every now and then I’ll come into the house and I’m like, I can kind of smell like, (8:46) I don’t want to say a moldy smell, but like a wet smell.(8:49) Can you can rely on a sniffer test? (8:52) I mean, often if you are gone for a while, what could happen? (8:57) I don’t know if this is what’s going on for you. (8:59) But we often see that floor drains go dry. (9:03) And then there is actually a sewer like smell coming out from the floor drain (9:07) or from the drain traps, especially in mechanical rooms.(9:11) Not all the floor drains in the mechanical room are used regularly. (9:13) So the water in the trap will drain out, dry out. (9:19) So yeah, I think that would be my first thing if I would smell something weird.(9:24) So just run some hot water in. (9:25) Yeah, like we noticed this at our office. (9:27) We have a floor drain in our bathroom.(9:28) That’s never, never any water going through. (9:31) And all of a sudden there’s a smell. (9:33) And I just, the first thing I’ll always do is just go fill, (9:36) run some water in that drain because that will be suspect number one.(9:41) Do sinks get that kind of, can they get that kind of smell? (9:45) They can if it’s not used in a long time. (9:47) Okay. (9:48) And then they can get the same like in the winter or when maybe the plumbing event will freeze.(9:55) Oh sure. (9:56) Then that water can siphon out and leave that trap dry. (9:59) Okay.(10:01) And if the, yeah, because it’s not venting properly or some sinks or some fixtures aren’t (10:08) or drains, I should say, aren’t vented properly. (10:11) And then there’s an increased risk of all the water. (10:14) Sometimes I notice that in a bathroom we don’t use a lot because it’s the guest bathroom.(10:19) We use our bathroom in our bedroom. (10:21) So it’s the guest one. (10:22) So every now and then I’m like, put the hot water on.(10:25) Yeah. (10:25) We see it in basement bathrooms a lot of times when, you know, (10:28) no one’s living in the basement anymore. (10:30) And no one’s using the shower in the, or the tub in the basement.(10:32) And people often will just have the drain plug down or yeah. (10:38) Lars Knoblauch, Nordic Inspections. (10:39) If someone is looking to buy a home, sell a home, they want to get mold checked, radon tested.(10:44) How can they get on your project list? (10:46) Give us a call 701-566-1446 or schedule your inspection at our website nordiccompaniesinc.com. (10:54) Great stuff. (10:54) Thanks Lars.