Basement Water Damage

As the lowest point in your home or building, the basement often receives the most water damage when flooding and other weather or plumbing disasters occur. Liquid likes to flow to the lowest point in your home and doesn't really care if your basement is finished and furnished or still has a cement floor and drywall. If you have any type of water damage in your home, it is important to contact a professional company for thorough evaluation and extraction in order to ensure the structural foundation of your home remains intact for years to come.

For many homeowners, once your basement floods for the first time, it is often more prone to flooding on successional occasions. Chronic basement wetness and flooding has been shown to be associated with a number of health problems that relate to growth of mold and other toxins in the humid environment. As such, no matter if this is the first or tenth time your basement has flooded, it is important to get appropriate water damage appraisal and extraction. Regular flood problems leave indications in your basement that can be noticed and evaluated on future appraisals and actually lower the value of your home. Further, if you allow standing water to remain in your basement for long periods of time, it can actually seep into the structural integrity of your foundation and compromise the overall strength of your home.

No matter the reason for your basement flooding, it is best to contact a professional early on for evaluation and treatment of the problem. A professional can diagnose outside drains that are clogged or note areas of ineffective runoff in the yard. Small cracks and seepage points in the foundation should be discovered and treated as soon as possible. Faulty pipes, water heaters, or problems with internal plumbing can also be the culprit for internal water damage and should be evaluated promptly.

Most professionals will tell you that the best way to fix water damage is to stop it before it even occurs. Regularly evaluate your internal plumbing and external runoff or drainage systems to evaluate and fix small problems before they become large and expensive problems. Regular inspections by a professional company that you trust will help ensure your basement stays dry. For homes that have regular flooding problems, sump pumps are often installed to deal with the problem on a regular basis. These pumps are used to drain off water as it accumulates and can be shut off when the basement area is dry again. Contact a professional in your area if you are worried about basement water damage.