What To Do When Your Basement Is Flooded

When your basement is flooded you can feel so desperate and not know what to do. But you need to do something, otherwise you will have water in the carpet, water stains all over, mold and mildew growing and giving off nasty odors, you might even need to repair a crack in the foundation. Water damage is serious.

Early spring is a favorite time for the basement to flood, for a variety of reasons. My own basement would often have extensive flooding every few years, even though I had taken extensive measures to prevent it.

Ice build-up in the spring can prevent water from soaking into the ground. If it rains heavily on top of this ice barrier, you will almost certainly get some carpet, wood or foundation water damage. My problem came from both sides of the house, and it was very difficult to permanently repair.

As a consequence, I had to use high quality basement floor paint after things settled down. This helped to prevent the growth of mold and mildew. If you do nothing, it is almost certain that your house will suffer from mold spores, which is very unhealthy.

Obviously, when you have water in the basement, you need to stop it at the source as soon as possible. Once this is taken care of, you can address the damage and find a way to prevent it from happening again.

French Drains

A good solution is to use French drains around the foundation. This is an inexpensive and simple solution to a big problem. You can do this yourself, though you need to consider how much time and strength you have. It does involve a lot of shallow digging, and some grunt work, but it is really not that hard.

The drain runs the perimeter of the house and can effectively stop a great deal of basement flooding. The water just does not have a chance to get past the French drains. This was the solution in my case and my water damage in the basement stopped completely. My total investment was very minimal, and I enjoyed the physical work. I even used some cave-man technology to move some very heavy stones, using pipes and boards.

One company, The B-Dry System, has extensive knowledge about wet basements, sump pumps, crawl spaces, and foundation repair. They are experts at repairing French drains as well.

Foundation cracks

If you have a foundation crack from the water, take care of it at once. These cracks only get worse with time. Once they reach a certain size, they tend to get bigger very quickly. You many need to do some excavating to take the pressure off the wall before you can fix it. A patch will do almost nothing, because the cause is still there.

One good resource is Applied Technologies LLC. They have a network of qualified specialists who can help you with your problem. Whether it is waterproofing, dampproofing, brick sealer, crack repair, or foundation drainage, they can help.

Carpet damage

You most likely will need to get rid of the carpet, if it has water damage. You can try to simply hang it outside in the sun for several days to see if the water evaporates and there is no mold or mildew. If there is, you can try some commercial applications, such as you find at a hardware store, or carpet store. Ammonia and water seem to work for many people.

There are some very good companies that specialize in restoring carpet from water damage. KiwiServices.com offers services all over the western US: Houston, Galvaston, Phoenix, Denver and so on. In the Los Angeles area, CitrusFresh has quality carpet cleaning and restoration services.