Blog

How to Handle a Wet Basement

Spring and fall tend to bring heavy rains to Long Island and, as many of us have recently seen, that means a wet basement. When entering your basement you may encounter visible signs of flooding, or you may experience something as fleeting as a musty odor. Either way, it spells a wet basement. Before calling for help take a look around the outside of your house to see if you can solve the problem yourself.

Check your gutters to see if they’re clogged. The job of a gutter is to move water away from the foundation and if they can’t do their job they can cause a wet basement. Next, check the ground outside the foundation. How is it sloped? If it slopes towards the house that is going to cause you to have basement water. Regrading the ground outside your house can go a long way toward keeping your basement dry. 

If the ground slopes away from your house and the gutters are working, you may have an issue called seepage. That means that surface water is going through the foundation wall.

If you do not use your basement or crawl space, water problems that are ongoing can be addressed by utilizing a drainage system such as french drains or a sump pump. This is particularly useful if you have water dripping down the basement wall. 

However, all of this changes if your basement is a living space. If your basement is finished you may need to consider basement waterproofing by a professional company, as a sump pump solution won’t work in a living space. 

Another issue you will encounter with a wet basement is mold. Mold is present everywhere in the environment but once it is given the chance to take hold and spread—which will occur when there is flooding or even a slow, steady drip in the basement—it can become a dangerous issue. When that happens you should call a mold testing and remediation company to handle the mold before the area is waterproofed. They will come and test to confirm if there is mold and then remove any affected materials, clean what can be cleaned, and spray a preventative coating on remaining materials. Then rebuilding and waterproofing can begin. 

If you have experienced a wet basement or any other flooding issue, call Branch Services. They have extensive experience with mold and water damage and can make your space safe to live in again.