Your Flood Prevention Checklist

Whether you want to prepare for floodwaters in advance or choose your protective measures at the moment, you should always know what steps you’ll need to take to protect your home from water damage.

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Best Practices for Flood-Proofing Your Home

If you’re concerned about the immediate effects of a flood, there’s good news. You can take steps a few days before the weather shifts to protect your home from the worst of localized water damage. These steps may include:

Preventing Flood Damage

While you can work to keep your home safe as soon as a flood alert arises, there are long-term solutions you can invest in and steps you can take ahead of time, too. These include:

1. Installing a Flood Vent

Flood vents may seem like unconventional basement additions, but they have more benefits than you might think. For example, flood vents keep water outside your home from overwhelming your structural supports.

Consider this: As water pressure builds up outside your home, the molecules that make up your walls and foundation will begin to expand and contract. If you want to keep your supports from cracking, you need to give the aforementioned water a place to go. While flood vents may allow water to briefly enter your home, they’ll keep that pressure from damaging your walls. You can readily pair these vents with interior waterproofing measures to keep the rest of your belongings safe as well.

2. Keeping Your Utilities Off the Ground

Sometimes, the best thing you can do to protect your home is to rely on ancient solutions. If you’re concerned about your utility accessories, try and keep them off the ground in your basement. This may require you to install additional shelving units but doing so is worth the effort. The higher up your utilities and belongings are, the more likely it is that they’ll stay safe should your basement flood.

3. Investing in an Interior Drain

For a more comprehensive basement waterproofing system, you’ll want to pair your sump pump system with interior drainage. Contractors like Tar Heel Basement Systems can install a specially designed sub-floor system throughout your basement’s perimeter. This system catches leaking water from the walls and floor and then directs it to a sump pump system so it can be removed from the basement.

4. Curtaining Your Exterior Drains

If you’re concerned about the state of your drains, consider investing in an exterior drain curtain. These curtains are designed to act and look like loose gravel. As such, they’ll keep larger materials out of your drains while allowing water to flow freely out of your home.

Investing in anti-flood preventative measures does more than just protect your home in case of a flood. You can talk with a representative from your insurance agency to determine whether your preventative steps can net you lower premiums.

Don’t wait for the weather to turn. Reach out to one of the professionals working in your area today to see which anti-flooding measures may suit your home best. Contact the expert team at Tar Heel Basement Systems today for a free inspection and estimate.

Holly Richards-Purpura

Content Writer

Holly is a Content Writer for Groundworks who has written and edited web content for the foundation services industry for almost 10 years. With a background in journalism, her passion for the written word runs deep. Holly lives in Columbus, OH, with her husband. Along with educating homeowners, she also has a big heart for the Big Apple.