2019 spring weather in the Northeast Ohio area was wet and muddy. According to the National Weather Service records, 2018 and 2019 rain precipitation was among the heaviest in recorded history. Last year’s rain precipitation was 8.43 Inches compared to the 7.42 Inches this year, all in all, a very wet year.
Flood warnings in the Northeast Ohio area were happening almost daily. Rivers were overflowing, Fire rescue and EMTs were busy pulling people out the Cuyahoga River, and if you happen to live close by a river, your yard and in some cases your basement was flooded.
It has been a very wet spring and early summer, and although many people would be happy to be in this situation, for many homeowners’ basements, too much rain can be catastrophic.
How can you tell whether you have a problem with your basement?
Early Signs of Water Damage:
- Cracks in the walls
- Cracks along the seams where the walls meet the floor
- Water sitting along the basement walls
- Peeling paint
- Mold
- Musty odor
- Water in any part of the basement
For some Northeast Ohio homeowners, this spring brought too much water to their homes. If you own an older home, and you found water in the basement this spring, you have a problem.
Many older homes have lost their foundation sealant, and are letting water into the outside walls of the home that will eventually find a way to the inside. The process of water getting into the basement of your home can be slow, and the damage can occur for many years before the homeowner realizes there’s a problem at all. The damage done however can play havoc to the basement, the structure of the home, and more devastatingly, your finances.
If you have discovered a crack in the wall, and believe you can fix it, you may have another problem. Videos showing you how to fix the crack in the wall does not show you the whole process that took to fix it. They usually show you the ending project or the middle, but never the whole thing.
There are also many sealants you can buy at HomeDepot or Wal-Mart to apply it to the basement walls, but that’s not all it takes to fix the crack in the wall and you might not fix the problem at all.
You need to ask yourself some questions before trying to fix the crack in the wall:
- Am I going to fix the water seepage that’s happening, or will I make it worse?
- Is the water seeping from the outside or do I have an inside leak?
- Will I be able to fix the problem, or will the water find a better, bigger spot to come in?
- Is the sealant on the walls too old? Is it gone?
- Do I have water sitting around the foundation and seeping into the home?
- Do I need to clean the gutters and the spouting first?
There are many issues that arise when doing a project on your own. Patching the basement crack in the basement of your home should be left to professionals. Fixing it by yourself means that the problem will persist and the “fixing” you did was only temporary.
An expert will address the problem, find a solution and give you a quote with no strings attached. They know what they are doing and they know whether there are other damages that you didn’t spot.
A professional company should be doing the work to ensure the work is done properly, with no shortcuts and to stop the damage in the foundation and basement of your home.
