How and Why Flood in Basement Occur and Its Negative Impact

When your basement gets flooded, it is best to deal with the problem straight away, and to do so successfully, you will need at least some basic knowledge of the reasons why basements fill with water.

Basement floodingis an obnoxious problem that many households face on a regular basis. Rather than dealing with it, however, many people prefer to wait and let the problem go away on its own. Such an attitude is dangerous and can have grave consequences for your home in the long run.

Research cites the following impacts:

• Chronically wet houses are linked to an increase in respiratory problems.
• Frequent occurrences of basement flooding can result in long-term damage to the building and equipment that may not be covered by insurance.
• Insurance rates may rise to compensate for repeated basement flooding claims, and/or the minimum deductible may be increased significantly.
• Property value may depreciate because the basement is prone to frequent flooding.

Before appropriate measures can be taken, it is important to identify the causes of basement flooding. These range from problems originating in the individual dwelling to problems associated with the municipal sewer systems that serve entire communities.

Water can enter your basement for a number of reasons. Water in your basement is most likely to occur during periods of heavy rainfall, or when snow is melting rapidly during a spring thaw. In these cases, your basement can be wet because of:

• a leak or crack in your home's basement walls;
• poor lot drainage;
• failure of the weeping tiles (foundation drains); and
• overflowing eavestroughs or leaking/plugged downspouts.

Basement flooding may also occur because of:

• a blocked connection between your home and the main sewer in the street;
• a back-up of wastewater in the sewer system (or a combination of wastewater and rainwater from the sanitary or combined sewer system); and
• failure of a sump pump (in some areas) used to pump weeping tile water.

Basements are also vulnerable to natural river flooding disasters, but these cannot be addressed by individual homeowners.

Basement flooding problems are best diagnosed by working your way down from the eavestroughs and downspouts, to the lot and foundation drainage, and then to the plumbing system — both inside your home and beyond its connection to the municipal sewer system.

Water pours out of your eavestroughs into downspouts. If the downspouts are dumping the water right beside your foundation, it drains directly to the weeping tile and can easily overload your home's drainage. Make sure downspouts extend at least 1.8 m (6 ft.) from your basement wall. Also, be sure the water does not drain toward your neighbour's basement walls. It should drain away from your house toward the street, rear yard, or back lane. If your downspouts are connected to your home's sewer system, or weeping tile, disconnect them.

Clean debris from eavestroughs regularly. If they overflow even when clean, replace them with larger size eavestroughs and downspouts.

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