What are the Best Ways to Improve Basement Drainage?

Walking into a basement filled with water can seem like a nightmare. Luckily, there are a couple of ways to effectively rid your basement of water for good. Basement drainage begins by making sure that the outside of your home is prepared to handle an influx of water. Thus, the first step towards preventing basement flooding is to take a quick walk around the outside of your home.

When water seeps into the perimeter of a home, the result is a flooded basement area. This happens when the actual slope of the ground that a home sits upon is not level, or when drains and gutters are not functioning properly. The ground around a home should always face downwards, so that water can slide away from a home when rain falls. If a property is too level, water will simply sit around the perimeter of a home causing basement flooding.

Drains and gutters that do not effectively drain water can be the other cause of basement flooding. Homeowners should make sure that all drains and gutters are cleared of debris on a regular basis. In addition, any broken or cracked gutters should be replaced right away. More often than not, a leaky basement can be directly traced to faulty gutters and drains. Fixing gutters and drains is easy enough to do, though fixing the slope of a property may take a bit more work.

The best way to fix a slope problem is to hire a professional surveyor. Since a property's ground slope must be measured precisely, this is one job that is best left to a trained expert. If gutters, drains, and a property's slope do not seem to make a difference when it comes to basement drainage, then you may have a far more complex problem on your hands. Sometimes, digging a trench around a home is the only way to solve this problem.

A trench that surrounds a home acts like a barrier between a home and potential rainfall. This type of trench should be created by professional contractors, since the measurements required to build a trench are extremely precise. Aside from all of the basement drainage solutions mentioned above, there is one last way to deal with a continuously flooded basement.

Some contractors and homeowners believe that the best way to conquer basement drainage is to allow for basement flooding. While this may seem confusing, the idea behind this concept is to simply remove water from the basement area as soon as it begins to flood. This can be done by hiring a contractor to dig a trench inside of your home along the foundation wall. Even though water will enter your basement, it will be captured in an indoor trench that can later be emptied.