Why your clients’ basements will probably leak eventually

Homeowner clients are battling the elements just by living below the ground floor, and so they will need to act quickly if they notice water pooling in their basement, a building supply vendor suggests.

“Creating a comfortable living space in a basement can be a challenge because you’re basically attempting to stay dry in a concrete box,” wrote Chris Emard, co-owner of Emard’s Lumber in Cornwall, Ont. in a recent column for the Standard-Freeholder.

Basements are vulnerable to water damage because both concrete and soil absorb moisture, Emard wrote. Moreover, soil stays relatively wet most of the year.

“Most basements leak, eventually,” Emard wrote in Handyman Hints: Floor it? Or live with it unfinished? “So, the key is to heed the warning, and jump on the leak as soon as one becomes apparent. Don’t consider minor pooling in your basement as a one-off.”

Water is the biggest cause of property damage in Canada, surpassing fire, wrote Matt Hands, business director of insurance at Ratehub.ca, in a recent article on Ratehub’s website.

Whether or not the water damage is covered by insurance depends on the exact policy wording. Many home insurance polies exclude seepage, for example.

Home insurance normally covers water damage arising from “sudden and accidental” bursts of pipes, Brokerlink notes. If rain penetrates the roof and walls of a building with no visible damage, this is not normally covered, notes TD Insurance. Other water damage normally excluded from home insurance is deterioration or corrosion of the roof, or water that gets in because roof and vent flashings are not properly sealed.

A speedy response may require calling a foundation repair professional, Emard suggests.

“The risk with sealing foundation cracks from the inside is you have little control over where the injection fluid goes, with the installer blindly relying on the probability the urethane formula will follow the crack in the concrete, and not stray off into a void in the backfill,” he wrote in his column for the Standard-Freeholder.

“If after a couple of urethane-kit investments, the crack you’re working on just doesn’t seem to be filling up, then you’ll have little choice but to cut your losses and call a foundation repair professional. Enjoying living space in your basement means re-gaining control of the displaced water.”

Emard suggests that if a home is more than 25 years old, the drainage or weeping tile systems may need to be repaired.

For his part, Hands has several tips for mitigating water damage risk:

• Try not to use the basement to store valuable items, or at least put them in containers up off the floor
• Check pipes at least once a year for corrosion and leaks
• Do not pour used oil or grease down drains
• Install leak detectors and smart water valves that can remotely power down the main water if a leak is detected.

Feature image via iStock.com/zimmytws