Because they are the lowest point in a home, basements are naturally prone to flooding particularly during the wet season. To prevent catastrophic water damage to your basement during heavy rain, you need to find a way to prevent water runoff from getting inside your basement.
This typically involves multiple approaches from improving drainage in your garden to waterproofing your basement.
Here’s a quick guide on how to prevent basement flooding during heavy rain to protect your home. Some of these may require costly professional work, but restoring a water damaged basement will cost you more.
Proper Grading Around Your Home
A poorly graded garden is one of the most common causes of basement flooding when it rains. If the area around your home slopes towards the house, it will channel a lot of rainwater towards the foundation and into the basement.
A flat garden can also be a problem. It can cause standing water when it rains, which can then find its way into the basement.
You can easily tell if your garden is well graded by observing how water flows when it rains. If water flows towards the house or stands in pools and puddles around it, you need to work on the grading.
Get a pro to help you with grading. Experts recommend that the ground should drop at least 0.5 inches per foot away from your home. This gradient should extend to at least 10 feet away from the foundation.
Install Proper Drainage in Your Garden
Poor drainage around your home can also bring runoff rushing towards your basement. Grading your garden can help fix most of the drainage problems.
But depending on how your garden looks like and the general area around your home, you may need to install drainage. For instance, your home could be situated at the bottom of a hill, meaning a lot of runoff and groundwater flows towards the house no matter how you grade the garden.
You might also have a lot of water coming from the street or the neighbour’s garden.
Proper drainage allows you to redirect the water away from the basement. The best kind of drainage will depend on your budget and how much water you are dealing with.
A French drain is usually the best way to deal with standing water and to redirect water flow away from the house. Here’s a video showing how it works.
If you are getting a lot of runoff from your driveway, install a channel drain across the driveway at the lowest point to collect water and carry it away.
Clean and Maintain Your Gutters
If you don’t have roof gutters installed, do that right away. Gutters prevent water runoff from the roof from pouring right next to the foundation, where it could easily get into the basement.
Most homes, though, have gutters. The problem usually is maintaining them. If your gutters are dirty and clogged, rainwater will overflow and pour right next to the foundation. So clean the gutters often, especially as the wet season approaches and do any necessary repairs.
Once it starts raining, check all the gutters to make sure they are working properly and quickly fix any problem areas before the rain gets heavier.
Move Downspouts Away From The House
Another common gutter problem is downspouts that are too close to the house. All the water that collects in gutters but then just gets deposited close to the basement.
Downspouts should be at least 10 feet away from the foundation. Having them 4-6 feet away can also work if your garden slopes away from the house. If your downspout is too close to the house, add an extension to drain rainwater further away.
Install a Sump Pump With Battery Backup
An automatic sump pump automatically detects rising water levels in the basement and gets into action to get rid of it. It prevents flooding in basements and crawl spaces.
Get a sump pump installed in your basement if you don’t already have one.
But a lot of basements with sump pumps still flood for two reasons. One, homeowners don’t regularly check to make sure the sump pump is still working. You realise too late when your basement is already flooded.
Two, heavy rainstorms tend might be accompanied by power blackouts. And since sump pumps run on electricity, it goes dead when you need it most.
Keep checking your sump pump to make sure it’s working, particularly during the wet season. Also, get a battery backup to ensure the pump keeps working through a blackout. There are plenty of battery backup systems designed specifically for sump pumps.
Waterproof Your Basement
Finally, waterproof your basement as much as you can. This includes installing an exterior waterproof membrane, barrier or coating, interior sealants to keep water from seeping in through cracks or a porous wall and repairing any cracks that could be an entry point for rain or ground water.
Work with a professional to find out what vulnerabilities in your basement could lead to flooding and how to fix them.
