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4 facts about wet basements

Posted Mar 31, 2021 in Foundation Crack Repair, Waterproofing, Sump Pump Solutions, Crawlspace Encapsulation, Drain Tile System

There are a lot of mis­con­cep­tions out there about leaky base­ments and foun­da­tion dam­age. Some peo­ple think it’s not real­ly a big deal, and oth­ers believe that foun­da­tion repair means you need an entire­ly new foun­da­tion (it doesn’t). There are, how­ev­er, some incred­i­bly sober­ing facts about your base­ment and home’s health and how water dam­age can affect you and your family.

Fact #1: Mold can grow in a day

One of the rea­sons that you must act quick­ly when you dis­cov­er leak­ing or mois­ture in your base­ment is mold growth. If you find mold in your home, it doesn’t nec­es­sar­i­ly mean you’ve had water dam­age for­ev­er; actu­al­ly, mold growth can hap­pen quite rapid­ly. Whether it’s from severe flood­ing or sim­ply a lit­tle con­den­sa­tion, you can start see­ing nasty for­ma­tions of the mold after just 24 hours of expo­sure. If you think that water dam­age is some­thing you can just deal with, lat­er on, keep in mind that you could be invit­ing health-haz­ardous mold into your home if you don’t take imme­di­ate action.

Fact #2: Water­proof­ing paint does­n’t waterproof

Let’s call water­proof paint what it real­ly is, shall we? Water-resis­tant paint. We’ve seen too many peo­ple tricked into think­ing that a few lay­ers of water­proof paint in their base­ment will do the trick and keep their home and belong­ings dry. This paint can be use­ful in pre­vent­ing water from absorb­ing into the walls or oth­er sur­faces, but it’s no replace­ment for call­ing a pro­fes­sion­al to water­proof your base­ment, inside and out.

Fact #3: Base­ment water­proof­ing isn’t as expen­sive as you’d think

Does a good base­ment water­proofer come cheap? No. But remem­ber that your home is prob­a­bly the sin­gle most expen­sive thing you own, and it’s worth your while to invest in it. You’ll keep it in great con­di­tion, make it safe and enjoy­able for your fam­i­ly to live in, and increase its resale value.

Addi­tion­al­ly, while you’ll be whip­ping out the check­book for base­ment water­proof­ing, you’ll be doing just the same when you have to replace dam­aged fur­ni­ture, get rid of mold, or hire some­one to repair your foun­da­tion. All of these can be pre­vent­ed with the invest­ment of base­ment waterproofing.

Fact #4: There’s no one proven method

Any con­trac­tor that will tell you their work is one size fits all should send up red flags. The truth is, every sin­gle sit­u­a­tion is dif­fer­ent. Every base­ment will have dif­fer­ent square footage and be fac­ing any num­ber of prob­lems and a good con­trac­tor, like Fam­i­ly Water­proof­ing Solu­tions, will design a plan of action specif­i­cal­ly for your home. The way to water­proof your home will be just as unique as the home itself. If you’re inter­est­ed in dis­cussing your base­ment water­proof­ing options and get­ting a free quote, call us today at (708) 330‑4466.