6 Tips to Prevent Basement Flooding
Adding a basement to your house might benefit you in the long run. They usually accommodate some of the most vital equipment in your homes, such as your washers and dryers, furnaces, and water heaters, and provide you with additional storage space. This can be a significant advantage.
Unhappily, this is also the part of your home that poses the greatest threat of flooding if there are protracted periods of extreme rainfall or severe storms. In addition, it could produce a huge mess that needs to be cleaned up by you.
Let’s look at some of the things you can do to keep your basement dry and prevent problems like this one from occurring.
Pay attention to your sump pump: Installing a sump pump in your basement as soon as possible provides you with the best protection against water buildup in that area. However, they need to be maintained regularly to ensure their continued functionality. The float switches need to be fixed or damaged, there is an issue with the check valves, there is no backup power source, and the pumps are operating continually. To ensure that your sump pump is ready for anything that mother nature can throw at it, it is important to test it regularly and adhere to a maintenance schedule. These are the types of services that could be provided for you by your neighborhood plumber.
Examine your home’s foundation: It is easy for water to seep in through any cracks in your foundation and make its way onto your basement floor; as a result, you should repair any cracks you find as soon as possible if you find. If you find any cracks, it is important to remember that water can easily seep through any cracks.
Take a look at your landscaping: If the topography surrounding your property slopes in the direction of your residence, then there is a greater chance of flooding in your basement. You might have to regrade your yard to keep water from getting into your basement. This would be necessary to prevent water from seeping into your basement.
Clean your septic system, if you have one: It is just as important to perform routine checks on and maintenance on your sump pump as to keep the septic system in your house in good working order. It will be easier to avoid sewage backups if you perform maintenance regularly and keep up with it.
Clean your gutters. If your gutters are not maintained regularly, they are more likely to become clogged with leaves and other debris, which can cause them to overflow, often into your basement. The fact that this must be done despite everyone’s distaste for it does not change the fact that it must be done.
Downspouts:
The debris that collects in your gutters can also clog your downspouts and cause them to become ineffective. The same decomposing leaves and twigs can clog a downspout to the point where water is forced through seams or pushed back up to the top of the structure. Put a lengthy water hose with a nozzle designed for high pressure into the downspout accessed from the roofline. Put the water hose on and turn it on. It is expected that the power of the water will be sufficient to push debris through the entire passageway.
Most downspouts in residential properties are equipped with a straightforward splash block. The splash block is not preventing the ground from becoming saturated. The earth absorbs all the rainwater that is redirected from your roof by directing it through your gutters and the downspout. The very same world that we are working to keep from being saturated and flooding the basement.
Connecting the downspout to a dry well is the most effective method for redirecting water from the roof to the ground below. The first step in creating a dry well is to bury a drainage pipe in a trench and then pack stone around it. The pipe has a gentle downward pitch for at least 15 feet or more as it travels from the downspout to the bubbler pot at the bottom of the pipe. The water can more easily penetrate the hardpan clay soil thanks to the bubbler pot. Because of the hardpan clay, any water that accumulates around your home will quickly drain away.
Does insurance cover basement flooding?
Before making any decisions, you should verify this information with your insurance provider; however, in most cases, flooding is not covered by homeowner’s insurance. In order to be protected from flood damage, you will need to acquire a second insurance in addition to your current one.
According to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), a basement is any part of a building with a floor placed below the natural ground level on all sides. This definition applies to basements in both residential and commercial structures. This term originates from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency that is part of the government of the United States. Under the building coverage provision of flood insurance, a variety of household appliances, such as sump pumps, well water tanks and pumps, oil and natural gas tanks, furnaces, water heaters, air conditioners, and heat pumps, are protected in the event that a flood takes place. The insurance policy provides this coverage. This guarantees that the property that is insured will not sustain any damage. In the context of homeowner’s insurance plans, the phrase “contents coverage” refers to the protection extended to things like washing machines and dryers, as well as freezers and the food that is kept within them.
The flood insurance policy will not pay to replace things like the carpet, furniture, or any other items deemed to have only a minimal functional value. This includes any and all items that fall into this category.
