Minimizing and Managing Potential Basement Water Problems | Home Inspections Monmouth County NJ
In September, 2014 I was inspired to write Part 1 because of what I had observed in my inspections and a call that I received from a client. In December, 2014 I wrote Part 2 because on October 18, 2014 and November 8, 2014 I performed two inspections that I was reminded of prior to writing Part 2.
This past, Memorial Day weekend, if you were in central New Jersey you know how hard it rained on Sunday, May 27. The link below confirms that in the town where I live, over 4 inches of rain fell.
Based on the amount of water in a couple of buckets I had in my yard, I think the 4+ official inches in this link is low. Regardless, let’s use the official number and do the math. Why am I now writing this? Because over the past couple of days I received a text and a call from home inspection clients saying that they had water in the basement after this weekend’s rains. The lessons and recommendations in the previous parts of this series of articles remains the same. Keep rain water away from your house; Maintain your gutters and downspouts. Have downspout extensions as far from the house as possible. Make sure the soil and pavements slope away from the house. I also recommend maintaining any sump pumps and have battery back up for the sump pumps too.
How much water is in 4.72 inches of rain? For this example we’ll assume a 40 foot by 60 foot house. That’s 2400 square feet of surface area. After the math is done, just coming off the roof is over 7000 gallons of water! If we add in a five foot apron around the house, that’s another 2943 gallons making the total amount of water from this one day’s rain was over 10,000 gallons deposited close to the house.
The consequences of epic rainfalls like this can’t be determined during the course of a 2 – 3 hour home inspection.
Keep your gutters clean and maintain your gutters and downspouts.
Make sure the soil and pavement are sloped away from the house.
Maintain your sump pump systems.
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