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How Can Water Ruin Your Basement?

Written by Posted On Tuesday, 23 April 2019 11:36

Your home's foundation has one job: to hold up your house. Unfortunately, far too many homeowners are not paying attention tot he state of their foundations, causing the foundation to amount to unnecessary strain. Because of this, the walls of the basement will start to crack and become broken, eventually leading to a failed basement wall. When this happens, it becomes very costly to fix, or even possibly unfixable.

There is one culprit behind much of the destruction: water. But with proper management of the basement water, you can prevent the possibility of this ever happening or fix any issues you are already experiencing. How destructive is water for your basement?

As necessary as water is for our lives, it is a destructive force for a house. If it gets into your basement, either from rain, snow, or irrigation, it can make its way into the foundation walls and corrode them. This happens because water is acidic, especially when it is mixed with the soil around your home.

The cement blocks that hold up your house are capable of holding up to two gallons of water. Since it’s so absorbent, the cement can hold up to three feet of water, which means a lot of pressure is being applied. This puts a tremendous amount of strain, causing the walls to crack.

It might sound like a lot of water is needed to cause such damage, but even an inch of rainfall covering the size of the average yard yields as much as 6,000 gallons of water. That being said, the severity can escalate rapidly with just the slightest amount of precipitation.

A serious risk to our health

Another serious problem that water damage can lead to is one that can affect your family’s health: mold. Mold loves dark and damp environments, so a water damaged basement is a nirvana for the fungus. When moisture is present, mold will grow rapidly. Mold removal is not cheap and can be a hazard to those working on it. In fact, a university in New Jersey had spent over $500,000 to clear out rooms that had been affected by growths of mold.

Stopping and preventing the problem

The most effective way to avoid facing these problems is through prevention. But if your basement is showing the slightest signs of water damage in the smallest corner, it should not be ignored.

If you notice a crack in the floor, it might be indicative that there is a fracture in the footer of your home, or it could be a more severe case of your floor starting to collapse.
The foundation that is in such states is a huge safety risk. While it will cost a massive amount of money to fix, the value of your home could completely deteriorate and become condemned. Meaning it is essentially too dangerous to live in.

It might sound like an uncommon instance, but it happens more often than you might think. Cases regarding collapsing foundations and mold infestations are taken very seriously by city and municipal courts.

So to prevent any of this from happening to your home, have your basement be inspected by a professional water damage company. They will be able to detect any problems early on, or if there are no problems at all. By doing this, you will not have to worry about any repairs, saving you thousands of dollars in the long run. The key to all this, however, is to schedule an inspection early on.

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Marc H.

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