Cleaning and maintaining your gutters is just as important as changing your AC filter, fixing water leaks, or checking your roof tiles.
Gutters may seem trivial but they are the most effective way to maintain your home’s drainage and protect your foundation.
Keep reading below to learn more about the importance of proper home drainage. We’ll also discuss what measures you can take when your gutters are clean but you’re still getting too much water around your foundation.
Our residential basement waterproofing services can ensure water doesn’t get into your home.
The Importance of Proper Home Drainage
Too much water in the soil around your home can damage your foundation. Having proper drainage is the best preventative measure you can take to protect the structure of your home and prevent water seepage into your basement or crawlspace.
Heavy rainfall or melting snow adds more water to your soil. Over time, it will apply hydrostatic pressure against the walls of your foundation. This can lead to cracks in your foundation, and this will allow even more water inside.
This is why you need effective drainage to divert the water away from your home.
Here are some simple home drainage tips:
- Extend and bury your gutter downspouts.
- Slope your yard to naturally divert water away from the foundation
- Plant trees and bushes to pull moisture out of the ground and hold soil in place
- Select high-quality gutters and regularly clean gutters to capture rainwater
- Add gutter downspouts to ensure water doesn’t pool around your foundation
- Consider installing an underground drainage system
Start implementing these tips to protect your foundation.
But, if you’ve tried everything and water is still leaking into your foundation, it may be time to call for basement or crawlspace waterproofing services.
Call a professional as soon as you see cracks or pooled water in your basement or crawlspace.
Sump Pumps and Gutter Downspouts Can Help
Many homeowners have existing sump pumps and drain tile systems in their homes to divert water away from their foundations. An estimated two-thirds of American homes have sump pumps.
The problem is that sometimes sump pump discharge lines that are not extended far enough away from the building will discharge the water from the sump pit too close to the foundation, creating a recycling effect. As a result, water will eventually seep back into soil continuously and, over time, wear on the foundation and cause larger water seepage problems and could lead to structural foundation damage.
One very easy way to fix this is to extend the length of your gutter downspouts and sump pump discharge line. Doing it today will be cheaper than having to pay for costly foundation waterproofing and structural repairs in the future.
Extended gutter downspouts and sump discharge lines will ensure extra moisture in your yard is discharged far enough away from the foundation and not recycling itself back.
Need Residential Basement Waterproofing Services?
Excavation and installation of underground gutter downspouts and sump discharge lines should be completed by a foundation waterproofing professional.
Our team has the knowledge and experience to diagnose your soil type and identify the best place in your yard to extend gutter downspouts and sump discharge line. We can also check to make sure that your foundation hasn’t been damaged by extra moisture.
Call us today at 847-382-2882 if you have any questions about home basement waterproofing services or if you’d like to schedule a free consultation.
