One of the biggest enemies to your home’s lasting value is an all-too-common culprit: excess water. When rain, melting snow, or landscaping sprinklers don’t properly drain away from your house, you can easily end up with water sneaking into your basement or crawl space, ruining stored boxes, affecting your basement’s living space, and giving unhealthy mold and mildew a place to thrive. Water in your basement can also eat away at your foundation slab and cause structural damage.
These tried-and-true solutions will help nix this problem and ensure your basement or crawl space remains free of damaging moisture.
1. Direct Water Away from Your Roof and Foundation
Often, the root cause of water damage starts with rain, snow, and ice that don’t properly drain off. If water isn’t moving away from your home’s footing, that’s an immediate concern.
Clean and Repair Your Gutters
Your gutter system should remove precipitation from your roof and direct it toward the street’s drainage system. If you notice pools of water by your exterior walls, it’s possible your gutters aren’t working. Regularly clean them out to remove debris, ensure their feet are pointed away from your foundation, and fix any broken spots.
Install Sump Pumps if Needed
For Oklahoma homeowners with basements, a sump pump can be handy, especially if the space tends to retain water. This mechanism removes moisture from the lowest areas in your basement so it can’t stagnate there. Sump pumps are powered by electricity, and they must be maintained properly to avoid costly issues in the future.
2. Ensure Your Landscaping Drains Well
A second reason water can end up in your basement is landscaping that is waterlogged. This can happen if your land slopes toward your home, isn’t evenly graded, or has retaining walls that don’t drain correctly. It’s important to determine where the water is gathering—on top of the surface, or below it—so you can choose the right solution.
French Drains
If water is seeping into your landscaping and getting stuck below the surface of your soil, that’s the perfect time to install French drains. These drainpipes are placed 2-5 feet underneath your topsoil, in a ditch that is sloped and pointed away from your foundation. If needed, a pump system can also be added to draw water in and direct it away.
Surface Drains
If the issue you have is that water gathers atop the surface of your landscaping, such as pooling around the roots of trees and bushes, this is when surface drains will do the trick. This combination of drains, catch basins, and downspouts draw surface-level moisture away from your foundation, keeping water from sneaking into your basement.
3. Care for Your Plumbing and Basement
Finally, there are protective measures you can take inside your home to safeguard your basement from moisture damage. This approach is smart, because it can help prevent water from penetrating in the first place.
Install backflow valves.
Sometimes, water ends up underneath your house due to plumbing lines that run between your home and the municipal sewer system. If you’ve experienced sewer backups before, backflow valves are a helpful solution. These valves can be installed in your drain lines to stop sewer water from flowing in the wrong direction and causing issues in your basement.
Top solution: Waterproof your basement or crawl space.
The best long-term approach to stop moisture from damaging basements and crawl spaces is installing a waterproofing system. Waterproofing seals all the spaces where water can creep in through floors, walls, joints, and concrete. If your basement is accessible from inside, a heavy waterproofing membrane can be installed along your basement walls, along with a French drain for seamless water removal. For crawl spaces that are hard to access, hydrophobic grout can be injected into leaky areas in exterior walls, creating a lasting watertight seal that keeps your basement, crawl space, and home dry.
Gain Lasting Solutions for a Safe, Dry Basement or Crawl Space
Proper water drainage protects your house, safeguards your foundation, and ensures your landscaping stays beautiful too. And our expert team has solutions that will give you peace of mind.
We’ll assess your property and pinpoint your specific needs, and we’ll install a trusted waterproofing system to keep your basement dry. Contact our team at Edens Structural Solutions for a free, no-obligations waterproofing system estimate—and start your journey to a basement that’s safe from water damage.
