Wet Basement Can Be Your Home's Biggest Enemy

If your home has a basement, it can be finished living space, extra storage or a workshop. But if that basement has water leaks, it can also be a big source of trouble.

Water in a basement can cause damage to the floors above and can spawn harmful mold. And it's hardly an isolated problem. The American Society of Home Inspectors estimates 60 percent of U.S. homes have wet basements.

So, how do you fix a leaky basement? First, you need to determine where, exactly, the water is coming from. Unfortunately, there's a long list of possible suspects.

In most cases, the water is coming from the sky in the form of rainfall. While your roof might do a perfectly adequate job of keeping that rain water on the outside, where it goes after leaving your roof, or your neighbor's roof, can be the problem.

Start outside

Your search for the source of the water begins outside your home. Stand back and look at how you house sits on the lot. If it is even slightly lower than the surrounding ground, then water will run toward the house and may soak into the foundation, entering the basement through the concrete walls.

Next, check your gutters. If they are damaged or clogged with debris, water running down your roof will not go through the downspout but will overflow, collecting next to the foundation. Make sure your have a gutter system in place that will divert water from the roof away from the foundation.

If you're lucky, you'll find that surface water is the source of your wet basement problem. Lucky, because that's relatively easy and inexpensive to fix.

From the ground, up

However, the source could be water-saturated soils pushing moisture into the basement by hydrostatic pressure. That could also occur if the basement is built over a very high water table. Symptoms of this are water coming up through cracks in the basement concrete floor or water coming in at multiple locations, especially after an extended rain.

Another source of subsurface groundwater is an underground spring.

No matter where it is coming from, the best way to control subsurface groundwater is to install some type of perimeter drain system to relieve hydrostatic pressure. The groundwater is pushed into the drain system and not into areas where it can damage carpets, walls or belongings. The water drains by gravity into a sump pit where a sump pump discharges it out of the house.

Before deciding how to address the problem, of course, you need to know where the water is coming from. If you think you need help, hire a home inspector, not someone that is in the business of providing a waterproofing "fix." They will be more likely to try to sell you their service, while a home inspector is more likely to give you an honest evaluation.

If buying, avoid a leaky basement

If you are shopping for a home, it's a good idea to avoid buying one that has a leaky basement. How can you tell? There are several tell-tale signs:

• Take a deep breath. If you smell a damp, musty odor in the basement, chances are it has a water problem.
• Look for water stains along walls of the floor. If could be caused by a leak from upstairs, but it could be more serious than that. Find out what caused it.
• If you see mold, a black, brown, yellow or green substance, it should be a deal-breaker. You won't know for sure that it's mold, however, without having it tested.
• Look for efflorescence. This condition produces a white or sometimes grayish ash on the walls. Sometimes it sparkles. Efflorescence is caused by salt deposits left behind by evaporating water.