A flood in your basement is a genuine nightmare that might not always be preventable. It will cause the area to become moldy, and the majority of items stored there to become completely ruined. Since the majority of people use the basement as their primary storage area, such a scenario can be quite problematic. How can you prevent this from happening? Well, there are three things you can do. First, you can protect yourself from the financial consequences of a basement flood. Second, you can prevent the problem from ever happening. Finally, you can react in a timely manner. Here’s what you need to know about this.
1. Start With Flood Insurance
The first thing you need to understand is that you can never be 100 percent safe. Sure, you can protect your basement from rainfall and have quality pipes installed, but there’s always a chance that A) you’ve gotten faulty pipes, B) they weren’t installed properly, or C) something unforeseen happens. What if there’s a major flood in the area? What if the rainfall is so horrible that the soil around your place and the gutters simply can’t take it? While this is not something that you can prevent, the truth is that you can provide your home with necessary financial protection. What we’re talking about is getting the right flood insurance, which is provided by the government, for your home. This way, even if there is some damage, you still can save your household budget.
2. Keep Your Gutter System Functional
The key to preventing your basement from flooding lies in two things. First, you need to regularly inspect the pipes in order to ensure that there are no clear signs of damage. Second, you need to keep your gutter system safe and in place. You see, your basement is the lowest section of your home, which is why gravity will make all the water flow towards it. If your gutter and drainage system are damaged and aren’t doing their job, things might quickly escalate. In the case where the gutters are damaged beyond repair, it’s far smarter to find quality gutter replacement service than to wait and see what happens next.
Also, you can install gutter protection systems. You can avoid the need for cleaning and maintenance by installing a high quality gutter cover. So, this is the most reliable way to keep your gutters free-flowing.
3. Shut off the Valve
The first thing you need to do when you notice that you have a burst pipe in the basement is shut off the valve controlling the flow of water in your home. This will not solve your problem, but it will prevent the situation from further escalating, thus containing the damage and buying you time to react. Ideally, you would have more than one valve in your home. Your basement, your kitchen, and your bathroom each deserve a valve of their own. This way, you can compartmentalize the water flow and, if you’re forced to shut off the water in one section of the home, the rest of the home still has water. At the very least, you need to know where the main water valve is.
4. Landscaping Plays a Major Role
The way you manage the rest of your property is pivotal to your ability to keep your basement safe from flooding. First of all, the landscaping affects the frequency and intensity of your gutter-cleaning sessions. Tree branches and leaves are the most common debris in your gutters, along with pest nests. Therefore, if you keep the surrounding trees and shrubbery away from the gutters, by regularly pruning them and tending to the rest of the property, you can make your life a lot easier. Also, some plants and flowerbed formations can affect the water saturation of the soil around your home. This can affect your drainage system, making it inadequate for the task at hand.
Conclusion
In the aftermath of a flood, you can use the insurance money to cover the costs, drain the water from the basement, and call a plumber to make all the necessary fixes, because homeowners are responsible for plumbing from the property line to inside the home. However, when it comes to these types of disasters, what you do before them, and what you do immediately as they happen, matters a lot. This way, you can lower the cost of subsequent repairs and get your house back to livable condition a lot sooner than would otherwise be the case.
We hope you found this blog post on Tips & Tricks: How to Deal with Basement Flooding? useful. Be sure to check out our post on Top Reasons You Should Seek Assistance From a Water Damage Pro for more great tips!
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