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Ground Water Flooding
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Ground Water Seepage Damage
If your basement is damp, wet, or occasionally floods, you are losing use of up to half the area of your house. Worse, occasional flooding and sewer backup can be a continuous threat of destruction of your valuables, damage to your house, and dangers of electrical malfunctions. Xpert Flood Control specializes in eliminating these problems, and giving you peace of mind.
Preventing Ground Water Seepage
Ground water seepage problems can be the easiest to prevent. If the land surrounding your house is not properly graded, or if you gutters are blocked or improperly routed, you will probably have water seeping into your basement. This water can enter through window wells, holes, cracks in the foundation, or through the joints of the walls and floor.
Gutter Flow and Landscaping
These problems can often be solved by keeping your gutters clean, and making sure the gutters drain either into a sewer or at least eight feet from the house. You should make sure that the lawn and earth is built up around the house sloping away from the house so that any run off is carried away from your basement. You can also go out with an umbrella the next time there is a hard rain, and look for any places that water puddles near the house walls. These areas should be built up and drained away from the house.
Basement Windows and Doors
If you have broken basement windows or bad seals on the windows, and water runs down the side of the house, water will get in your basement. These problems are easily fixed with supplies from the hardware store. If you have window wells that fill with water, you will need to install window well covers, and make sure that the surrounding area is properly drained away from the window wells.
Service Holes
There may be holes in the foundation wall for gas pipes, flues, electrical wires, and air conditioning lines. These holes can be sealed with cement, mortar, epoxy, caulk, silicon, or expanding foam. Care should be taken to seal the outside as well as the inside.
Foundation Cracks and Joints
Cracks in the foundation may be part of the seepage problem, or can be symptoms of a worse problem. If there is a build up of water surrounding and under the foundation, this water will put pressure on the walls and floors causing the cracks. Cracks can be filled with epoxy and the walls can be painted with a sealer, but if there is sufficient water pressure on the walls or floor, more cracks and damage will occur.;
Dry Wells and Drain Tile
Water pressure on the outside of the foundation must be reduced or eliminated by draining this water, either from outside or inside. Drain tile can be installed around the foundation and a catch basin can collect water to drain it away from the house. A dry well can be dug to collect excess rain, or this water can be pumped into the sewer system.
Catch Basins and Sump Pumps
A sump pump can be installed in a hole in the basement floor. This can eliminate both the water around and under the foundation. A battery backup power system will allow the sump pump to continue working if the power goes out. For difficult situations, holes can be drilled at the base of the foundation walls, and water track can be epoxied to floor and wall to carry this water to a drain or sump pump.
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