I once came home and descended into my basement only to find to my horror that it was completely flooded and that all of my possessions therein were completely water damaged. Unfortunately I live in a part of the country that suffers more than most when it comes to basement flooding, so I am going to explain to you what you can do to avoid basement flooding happening to your home.
The first thing I did was to remove all my possessions from the basement floor, although, all of the items that I had stored inside cardboard boxes was very badly damaged, except the porcelain items but these had to be handled with care as I didn’t want the soggy cardboard box to break.
Once the basement was clear of items it was time to start looking for the source of the water, and areas you need to check are the walls, any water pipes, and the foundations.
If the leak is coming from the foundations then you will need to get it corrected straight away, a contractor will be able to deal with it for you. Whereas if you discover that the leak is coming from your pipes you will need to find out if it is broken or is merely leaking. If there are considerable amounts of water in your basement then it is probably a broken pipe and you will need to call on the services of a plumber.
So just what kind of damage can water do to your basement? Well the walls can be stained and if you have carpeting in your basement then that is likely to be damp, this will need to be dried otherwise mold and mildew will start growing. Mold and mildew is not something that should be ignored as it can have major health implications for you and your family as the spores can be inhaled.
So to summarize, a flooded basement is a major headache and needs to be dealt with quickly and more often than not professionally too.
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