Water damage weakens your house foundation and eventually causes severe structural breakage. Damp wood creates mold and mildew and attracts parasites such as termites. Water damage can be disastrous and extensive to a limit that your insurance coverage cannot compensate. Here are useful methods to protect your home from water damage.
1. Ensure a Good Drainage System
Poor drainage causes cracks and pathways for water to enter your house. The foundation of your home is also weakened. To ensure a healthy drainage system, observe the following strategies.
- Roof gutters: Clean your gutters often. Your drains will be free from clogs that can cause water to cascade to the wall sides thereby damaging the foundation.
- House downspouts: Ensure your downspouts direct rainwater about 5 to 10 feet away from the house.
- Maintain good soil moisture: You should not allow the soil around your foundation to get too dry. When the soil is too dry, and it rains heavily, it tends to exert a lot of pressure on the foundation. This pressure results from an abrupt expansion of the soil.
2. Prevent Mold and Mildew by Controlling Indoor Moisture
You can stop mold and mildew by controlling dampness. Mold infestations mostly occur where there are water leakages to the walls. Also, in basements where there is poor foundation drainage. You can prevent leaks around your home and also keep it well ventilated.
Another way is to keep the air inside your house dry. You can achieve a dry atmosphere by running Baseaire dehumidifiers whenever there are dampness encounters. AirWerx90 dehumidifier and AirWerx 90X dehumidifier are ideal for controlling humidity levels in airtight spaces such as crawl spaces or basements with restricted air circulation. The AirWerx 120X dehumidifier and AirWerx 140X dehumidifier are very suitable for the dehumidification of the whole house.
3. Use Large Bath Fan
Moisture in the house is known to emanate from bathrooms. The fan in your bathroom should clear out moisture within 5-10 minutes. If it is not working in this capacity, the size can be the limiting factor. Establish the right fan capacity for your bathroom by multiplying the square footage by 1.5. By replacing it with a big fan, the air in your bathroom will be moved adequately.
4. Avoid Using Unclogging Chemicals
Having clogs may be practically unavoidable. You may find it convenient to use those powerful chemicals to unclog your kitchen sink. Mostly these chemicals make drainages unclog faster. It is important to realize that these caustic chemicals eat away your pipes. Repeated usage of these chemicals results in pipe leakage.
5. Watch Where You Plant
Some plants and trees have invasive roots. These roots interfere with your drainage system, water lines, septic tanks, pipes, and foundation. When these plants or trees need water, their roots search for moisture, damaging pipes underground. The root system of a tree stretches as much away from the trunk as its height.
There should be a preferable distance at which trees and shrubs are planted from your house. Plan before planting to keep roots away from your house. You can seek expert advice near you. You will know the safest shrubs or trees to plant.
Water damage prevention is better than its cure. You may correct some situations, but you can’t salvage others based on the damage extent. Doors and windows may not close because a house shifting distorted its frames. Such a situation may not be corrected. Observe the above tips, and you will save yourself from the unrelenting effects of water damage.