responding to basement floods in your home
As winter falls into play the occurrence of a basement flood becomes greater. Knowing the causes and how basements can flood will give you the knowledge to make precautions to insure that it doesn’t happen. Basements often flood from rainstorms because the ground becomes too saturated with water and forces its way through basement walls by cracks in the floors, walls, or at joints where basement walls meet. Basements are prone to flooding because of various reasons such as location and structural features. Also, over time your home settles and shifts forming cracks and gaps making your home vulnerable to leaks. Make sure there isn’t excessive amount of water around your home that could make its way into your basement especially when the snow starts to melt. Water could also leak into your home from backup from a sewer drainage system. This could cause serious flooding and also be a health hazard if rainwater mixes with sewage water. A home device used to keep out water is a sump pump by using your homes main drainage system. A sump pump is a device that routes unwanted water away from your home through the homes main water drainage systems. It works by taking the standing water in your basement and filling up the sump pump pit. When the water reaches a certain level the sump pump kicks on pumping water into the drainage systems directly outdoors away from the foundation. Sump pumps are effective devices, but could cost several hundred dollars to install.
Another way to waterproof your home, but includes more labor is natural drainage system. You can do this by constructing an underground drainage system using perforated ridged plastic tubes. Map out a trench roughly a foot deep going preferably towards a storm sewer. Make sure the trench is on a downward slope so the water can run freely. Lay an inch or two of gravel in the trench then place the piping perforated side face down. Then cover the piping with more gravel so the dirt can’t clog the holes. Finally top off the trench with a few inches of dirt and sod. Other ways of waterproofing your basement walls can be expensive and requires excavation and a coating of the walls. This could range in to several hundred or thousands of dollars.
Some quick steps to make sure the water doesn’t contaminate any more of your basement if it happens to flood. First put on rubber gloves and begin soaking up water with towels or a mop. If it is sewage backup water, bacteria could be in the water so you want to make sure you throw the towels away after using them. Let the basement air out for a couple days. Using fans can help speed up the process. To insure mold or fungus doesn’t grow use disinfectants to clean the area effected with water. You can do this by using a mixture of bleach and water or any other strong disinfectant products. If you have wood trim or flooring treat it with disinfectant such as creosote. If small area of flooring or trim seem to be rotting you can fill the areas with commercial wood filler from a home improvement store, but if rotting is too extensive the wood should be replaced. If any flooding continues check washer hoses, outside faucets, windows, etc. If unsure of the source make sure to call professionals to assist you in any way.
