They seem to come out of nowhere…severe summer storms that dump tens of thousands of gallons of water on the Philadelphia & NJ region and cause wet basement damages from East Rutherford to Cape May Point!
Over the last four summers, the Philly area has seen increasingly bad storms make landfall. Tropical storms and two hurricanes blasted the North East from Maine to Delaware. New York, New Jersey, the Philadelphia Region and Delaware got hit especially hard. The Jersey Shore was decimated during Hurricane Sandy.
Homes were destroyed and basements flooded. In shore areas, the basement flooding often lead to homes literally sinking into the ground!
Millions in repairs have been undertaken, with millions more still to come. While nothing can truly hurricane-proof your home, you can take steps to ensure that your basement is safe from summer rain storms and Tropical Storms.
A few preventative measures can save you tens of thousands of dollars. The problem with fixing wet or water damaged basements is that it’s extremely expensive!
Try these wet basement solutions and fortify your home’s defenses!
1. Have an inspection performed by a qualified basement contractor. Having a professional look for any chinks in the armor can go a long way into preventing bigger problems. They can see things, danger signs, that the average home owner can’t. That tiny crack you ignored? It could be a sign that the basement is at risk of collapse in the right circumstances (days of rain and high winds).
2. Insulate Your Basement and Seal the Windows. Make sure that no water is getting in through the cellar windows or around them. This is a sure sign that water is going to be a problem. While you may get away with it during a light storm, if a big one hits and it rains for several days in a row, you could be looking at major damages!
3. Make sure down spouts are away from the home. All that rain that comes down the gutters and down spouts needs to be channeled away from your home. If it is allowed to pool and get sucked into the ground, you’ll have major problems. An inch of water can equal several hundred gallons of water. That water combines with the dirt around your home and puts massive pressure on your foundation. This pressure leads to cracking and leaks. Once this happens, water gets into your basement walls, weakens the cement or cinder block and will cause foundation failure.
4. Install a sump pump and a non-electrical powered back up pump. The problem with many pumps is that if the electric goes out, they shut off. Many companies now offer pack up pumps that are powered by water… they turn on when they’re submerged.
