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Helping You Make Your Home Your Castle |
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How to Prevent Basement Flooding
Flooding Basements
Introduction: A flooding basement isn’t something that any homeowner wants to experience. Unfortunately during the season of snow melt and spring rains many home owners fight the battle of flooding basements. This can be avoided by taking a few steps to prevent it. New construction uses water foundation drainage techniques to prevent wet basement. Older homes can do some of these same things to eliminated the problem.
The results are water damage that is costly to
repair as well as damage to possessions stored in
the basement. The situation is even worse if you
have a live in basement where the repairing of
water damage can be expensive. Unfortunately some
home owners fight the flooded basement problem
every year.
Besides the water damage, mold and mildew growth
quickly occurs. In just a few days the hazardous
mold growth appears. In most cases basement
flooding can be prevented in more than one way.
If you live in a high water table area it is
imperative than you have an adequate foundation
drain system to drain water away from the home.
However, if your home is located on a relatively
flat lot where you don’t have the elevation to
install a run off drain from the foundation you
will need to install a sump pump so the water can
either be pumped into the public disposal system or
away from the house.
In many locations where new homes are built on flat
lots a sump pump system is required by the local
building code. However, if your home was built
where there isn’t any such code you will have to
burden the expense of installing a sump pump
system. If your home does not have any kind of a
foundation drain system nor a sump pump you still
can resolve the situation.
How to prevent a flooding basement:
Under normal circumstances water will enter the
basement from under the foundation footing and
basement floor and then seep upward to the point
where the foundation wall sits on the footing and
the basement floor meets foundation wall. This can
be a considerable leak depending on the amount of
water that is flowing in the ground
Installing a sump pump to get rid of the water
before it rises to the floor level is relatively
easy. You will have to cut the concrete in the
basement floor and dig a hole below the surface to
install the sump pump. The hole only needs to be
approximately 12 to 18 inches deep to form a place
for the water to collect.
Sump pumps
come in a variety of sizes and features. I
recommend that you install one that has an
automatic float feature that will turn on the pump
anytime the water level approaches the underside of
the basement floor. The pump out can be either
plumbed to the public disposal system or away from
your home. You don’t have to continually fight the battle of a flooding basement. By installing a sump pump you can resolve the problem. Related articles:
Painting Basement Concrete Walls
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