Waterproofing Insights: Identifying Causes of Basement Leakage

Your wet basement could be a real nuisance. Every year, numerous homeowners constantly face unpleasant side effects and consequences of seasonal rainfall. Problems could range from simple dampness to flooding. Needless to say, chronic basement leakage could be a serious problem that could bring about destruction to furnishings, personal property, and appliances. It could also lead to permanent structural damage to the foundation of the building and to possible wood rot, decay, and presence of pests. Waterproofing is important. But before that, homeowners should first know about possible causes of the water leakage problem.

One possible root of basement leakage is inadequate or improper surface drainage. This could be caused by natural landscape such as a yard that is sloped toward your home. In most cases, such a problem could be alleviated by regrading your yard so that it could be sloped away from the foundation of the home. This could also divert surface water around the home. This could be a serious problem and the solution could be quite tedious and costly at the same time. However, it is important to remedy the situation as soon as possible before it gets worse over time.

It is just normal for foundations of your homes to occasionally leak over time. No foundation could effectively stay waterproof forever. There would be inevitable presence of gaps and cracks in walls that would allow passage of water. Sooner or later, water would find its way to get indoors and accumulate in the basement. You need to regularly check the walls in the basement to find for any gap or crack no matter how small they are. As an initial remedy, you may fill them in with waterproof compounds. There surely is something suitable to be found in the hardware shop in your community.

Another common culprit for basement leaking is presence of poorly or improperly positioned rain gutter downspout. It could be led as well by leaking, missing, or clogged rain gutters. Any downspout when improperly positioned so it would drain against a side of a house could allow building up of water along the foundation wall. It would do so long until the back-up reservoir finds any weak spot across the foundation wall.

Certainly, the most serious possible cause of any basement leakage is high water table. The problem concerning high water table happens when the foundation of the home is constructed very deeply into the ground. It could be built in a level where water would remain constant all year round. This problem could also be brought about by underground spring or by sustained duration of rainfall that causes rising of water table especially during wet seasons.

Moreover, the basement leaking problem could be as simple as a case of ordinary condensation. This happens when a warm and humid air gets in touch with cool basement floors, walls, and water pipes. There is not much requirement on waterproofing to solve this simple problem but for the rest, there could be a need to hire the services of professional waterproofing service providers.