How to dry a wet basement, is probably the most frequently posed question that we receive. One should really be asking, though, how to prevent it happening again!
Wet basements are certainly unpleasant places, and the damp, musty, moldy smell will tend to permeate your whole home every time the house is closed up for a period. Returning from a great vacation, to be met by that nasty odor when you open the front door, is certainly going to spoil your mood!
Aside from the damage to the contents, the basement floor, walls and ceiling too will eventually require considerable restoration work if the damp is allowed to remain. So the question really is where to begin in solving this common issue.
Start outside the house
Contrary to popular thinking, the first place to look is outside the home, and not in the basement itself. While the damp may be the result of water rising from below, it can just as frequently be from problems at roof level. When you get the next downpour of rain, put on your coat and take a stroll around the house. Walk right around the perimeter of the premises looking up for any signs of water dripping or streaming over the gutters. This is a sure sign that the problem is coming from above and not from below. How to dry a wet basement is often a rooftop issue!
Diarize home maintenance chores and get them done.
Just as with your car, regular servicing and maintenance will pay off in the long run, so too with the home. It’s amazing how the relatively simple, but important task of cleaning the debris and junk out of your gutters, is left unattended. Preventative maintenance will save you dollars in the long run, with neglect being the main culprit behind many plumbing and drainage issues. Make sure to get a qualified professional to do this for you before the start of the rainy season each year. Set up an annual maintenance routine, and the question of how to dry a wet basement will hopefully become a non-starter.
Where is all that water going?
Let’s assume that you have checked around the house, and the gutters seem to be flowing smoothly with no sign of any water overflowing. The next question to ask your self is where all that water from the roof is going. The obvious answer is: down through the downspouts and onto the ground around the house, but that could be the cause of the problem itself! If the discharge from the downspouts is too close to the walls, the chances are that a lot of that the soil alongside the walls is becoming saturated. From there, the water will percolate straight down alongside your walls into the foundation area. You definitely want to prevent that happening as this is a common cause of wet basements.
Move that water away from your walls
The downspouts can quite easily be extended by means of extension pipes. This enables the water to discharge far enough away from the walls to prevent seepage into the basement area. Although this is an easy fix, it may be preferable to actually sink the pipes beneath the ground surface so that mowing the lawn is made easier.
In order to achieve this one digs a shallow trench, sloping away from the house, into which the pipes are be permanently placed. This is then covered with turf to match the lawn. If the work seems too difficult, call in your local professional landscaping contractors to give you a quote.
How to solve waterlogged yards
The soil in some yards is naturally saturated with water for months of the year. Where this is caused by ground water flowing down slope towards the house, the problem can be solved by means of a French drain. If the problem is caused by a naturally high water table, it may require the use of a sump pump to move the water from the environs of the house.
Whatever the cause, a ready solution is available. If you want to know how to dry a wet basement, give us a call! We’ll come out for a free inspection, will advise you at to the best and most economical fix for your problem.
