Groundwater deteriorates your foundation walls, both inside and out, causing them to crumble. This will… produce costly structural and cosmetic monetary outlays for you in the future.
When serious home drainage issues arise, they usually do so during a home sale, when everyone says they are broke, and no one can afford to fix the problem.
Unless homeowners with drainage problems have thousands of dollars stuck away just for this emergency, they may find themselves between the rock and the hard spot.
When homeowners are faced with the reality that they have thousands of dollars worth of home drainage deferred maintenance to pay for prior to them being able to sell their home, everything changes fast, unless homeowners have prepared for home drainage problems ahead of time.
If no one has the cash to make the home qualify for a new loan, the home sale will fail, and escrow will never close.
Perhaps leaving the prospective home buyers on the street with the kids, because their old home was sold and closed to make it possible to buy the new home.
This is a situation that is totally avoidable.
Hydrostatic pressure most often caused by heavy rains or snow melt next to the foundation can crack foundation walls, undermine foundation stem wall footings, sink the homes spot footings in the crawl space that support the post-beam structure of the home, and pretty much trash the homes air supply as well, in the worst of cases.
Groundwater in basements can usually be identified by the stains on the walls, if they have not been painted over. A foundation vent in the crawl space may show this entry area, as well as a basement window will show streaks under the window on the basement wall below it.
Groundwater causes staining of interior walls and streaks the wall with rust red stains, from iron oxide most likely. This happens when it is raining hard, and after the water has dried, leaving the minerals behind on the basement wall as evidence of the groundwater entry.
Groundwater in your basement or crawl space can produce mold and mildew. The health implications should be obvious.
Groundwater below grade will usually force lime excretion from the concrete itself, weakening the concrete. This staining is called effloressence, and is the white stains left on the foundation walls or basement walls.
Groundwater is most often caused by heavy rains not vented around your home, either from faulty rain drain discharges venting the downspouts, or from rain or snow produced groundwater laying next to the foundation for extended periods of time during storm conditions.
Restoring basement walls that are groundwater damaged, where the walls have been painted over with dry lock paint, require the removal of all layers of dry lock paint, down to the bare concrete, to allow the mason/drainage contractor to restore this type of basement wall.
This is needed to bond the new skim coat to the existing concrete damaged wall surface. The masonry glues used for this purpose will not stick to paint surfaces.
Properly installed hand excavated french drain groundwater removal systems prevent foundation spot footings and exterior stem wall footings from sinking and settling.
Sinking and settling causes lumber to crack and bend, floors to tilt, doors to jam and windows to break or jam.
Hard wood floors can cup, crack, and swell from the moisture below in the crawl space. This can start the breaking up of your homes post-beam structure over years of neglect, as well as produce dry rot and bad air in the crawl space in time.
Your home is a valuable asset to your financial future and the well being of your family. Care for the health of it, and it will care for your health as well.