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How To Stop Standing Water From Ruining Your Home

Preventing Water Damage

Water is the enemy of your home. If you were to take a moment and consider the functional design of your home, you would start to realize that every part of it is built to keep water off. Your roof is sloped to allow water to drain into gutters to carry water away, and your siding is meant to protect and repel water from getting into the structure. Even the slope of the ground is designed so that water flows away from the house. Yes, water is a huge deal, and a home that doesn’t do a good job of diverting water is in for some trouble.

In addition to the damages that water causes by softening and destroying wood, it is also a conducive condition for all kinds of pest problems. Most notably, this comes in the form of wood-destroying pests like carpenter ants and termites. Again, water is softening the wood and making it more desirable to these insects. So, what can be done with the water that pools around your home and in your crawl space? Here are a few suggestions:

How do I get rid of water pooling in my yard?

A lot of us have yards that become small swimming pools after it rains. This may not be the best for your landscape, but it does not directly harm your home. The problem is that if you have standing water in your yard, your lot may not be accurately graded, and if that water continues to pool up and make its way towards the vents in your foundation, that becomes a problem. Water runoff that makes it under your home is not good (we will talk about this in a second) and should be addressed. The answer to this issue is usually a French drain. A French drain is a pretty simple system of trenches that carry the water to a more desirable location away from the house. It consists of a channel that is sloped towards the desired location, a perforated pipe with a filtered sleeve over it that carries the water, and drainage rock that allows water to drain correctly. Although a lot of work, this system can quickly fix the soggy wet lawn problem.

What if I have standing water in my crawl space?

This is kind of an issue that should not be ignored. Many homeowners may have standing water in their crawl space right now and have no idea that it is damaging the structural integrity of their homes. If you have standing water, something needs to be done about it. Trenching will again come in handy here. You can install a French drain in your crawl space for starters, but you may have to put in a sump pump to get it out. A sump pump is a basin sunk deep in the ground. Water flows to it, and a pump pumps the water through pipes outside of the home. Most of the time, the pipe exhausts into the underground gutter drain system so that it will allow water to flow off the site correctly.

Both of these issues seem pretty simple on the surface, but they are dirty, back-breaking jobs that, if done improperly, can be a lot of work for nothing. If the slope is not done right, it is not going to work. I recommend calling our pest control and home services company if you have water on your property. We will not pressure you to do anything and will at least give you some free advice along the way. I hope this information is helpful to you and we hope to hear from you.

Posted on by New Leaf Crawl Space
How To Stop Standing Water From Ruining Your Home

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