Seasonal Showers & Your Crawl Space Or Basement

April showers bring May flowers….or flooded crawl spaces and basements! Seasonal water damage isn’t as obvious as you may think. It doesn’t take a severe flood to do water damage to your home just increased saturation. For most of the Wenatchee, Leavenworth and Seattle areas we’ve experienced an increase in precipitation and strong winds over the last week. Now is the time to pay close attention to your crawl space, basements and drainage in your yard.

Right now is a good time to take a trip down to your crawl space. Prolonged moisture in the crawl space can attribute to mold, mildew, sill rot, joist rot, soil settlement, contamination of insulation and insect attraction. Monitor the walls in your basement for signs of moisture as well.

Follow these tips to keep the water out of your home. Clear gutters and downspouts of debris ensuring that water will be pulled from the roof and away from your home. Remember, a downspout doesn’t do any good if it deposits the water next to house! If your home’s yard frequently floods like the picture then you have problems resulting from a negative grade to the property. In other words your home should built up so that water slopes away from the home’s foundation. Finally, clear the storm water drains on the streets by your home frequently. This will avoid blockage and buildup of water causing dangerous street and property flooding. Should the property become a bigger problem than you can manage call the municipality. Of course, we are happy to perform a maintenance inspection on your home to determine any damages resulting from seasonal floods or moisture intrusion.

A Puddle of Problems

Water is a remarkable liquid. You know that saying, “give them an inch and they’ll take a mile.” This could be said for water. Without adequate grading (slope adjusting) and drainage a few rain drops may compound into a huge puddle of problems. The main objective with moisture concerns is to pull the water away from the home. This is remedied by roof, gutters, downspouts, grading and drainage. It seems fairly straightforward, but it’s always good to check these components regularly. Seasonal patterns can affect the integrity of your system. Ice build-up in the winter can bend gutters. Leaves will clog downspouts in the fall. Excessive rains in the spring way erode slopes or wash in debris to your drainage lines. Check your basement and crawl spaces routinely for signs of moisture. You may need to amend the grading to channel surface water away from the home if your puddles start turning into small ponds.