April Showers, Basement Floods and what you can do about them.

April showers bring May flowers; how can anyone disagree with that? The rains of April seem innocuous when we focus on the resulting flora, but for a homeowner they can be their worst nightmare. As you may have guessed, this month’s blog is about basement flooding.

If you’re trying to prevent flooding in your basement, there are several things which you need to consider/implement in your homecare plans. One easy way to avoid basement flooding is to install a sump pump in your basement.

Sump pumps are used where basement flooding happens regularly and to solve dampness where the water table is above the foundation of a home. Sump pumps send water away from a house to any place where it is no longer problematic, such as a municipal storm drain or a dry well. If a storm is powerful enough to disrupt power in your home, the power to your sump pump can shut off. Clearly, this leaves your basement vulnerable to the possibility of a flood. However, a water sourced back-up sump pump does not require electrical power. As long as your sump pump has access to municipal water or a well, it will keep running. This will prevent your basement from flooding.

If you have a sump pump, make sure it’s working by opening the cover and pulling up on the float. You should then hear the motor running. If it does not run, make sure it’s plugged in to an outlet and check your circuit breakers. If it still doesn’t work, have it replaced. Make sure the sump pump discharge pipe exiting your house is extended far away from your foundation walls to avoid having that same water infiltrate back into your foundation drainage system.

You can also buy a backup power source for your sump pump. If you lose electricity in a big storm, you can still keep the water from rising up through the foundation of your house.

Other ways to avoid basement flooding include focusing on prevention. Long before you're in a flooding situation, look around your property for ways to divert rainwater away from your home. Important considerations are extending rain gutter down spouts away from your home and making sure the grade of your yard surfaces slope away from your home, as well as keeping your rain gutters clean in the Spring and Fall.

For more information about sump pumps, contact us! May your Spring be filled with flowers and devoid of floods!