Why Water Comes Up Through the Basement Floor After Heavy Rain

Homeowners may wonder why water comes up through their basement floors after heavy rains.

Water coming up from the basement floor is a warning that all is not right around the building. A flooded basement can cause significant interior damage and ruin irreplaceable mementos like family photo albums or heirlooms stored there. And as if that wasn’t all bad enough, water in the basement is also a serious health concern as it can lead to mold.

Water in the basement is one of those nightmare scenarios that homeowners should avoid. Even if there has been minimal water before, heavy rain could tip the scales in the wrong direction. That’s why homeowners should understand how or why water can get into their homes in the first place and how to prevent it.

It may be a subsurface problem

Homeowners may wonder why water comes up through their basement floors after heavy rains. If water is coming up from the floor rather than dripping down walls, it is likely a subsurface problem.

Subsurface groundwater under hydrostatic pressure is one concern that homeowners cannot ignore. Read on to understand more about what this means and what can be done to protect a home from these water woes.

What is hydrostatic pressure?

Hydrostatic pressure is the water pressure pushing against a home’s foundation. This force can be incredibly powerful. Heavily saturated soil after heavy rain can exert tens of thousands of pounds of hydrostatic pressure on the foundation, making it likely that it’s going to find its way in. With that kind of pressure, water will come through even the tiniest of cracks.

Winning the battle against water

A sump pump installation is an essential step in removing water from a basement’s sump pit, designed to keep water out of a home by collecting it from other areas of the basement via a drain system. But homeowners also want to send that water away from their homes to an area where it will no longer be problematic.

So they need a sump pump.

Homeowners can install a submersible sump pump with cast iron, an epoxy-coated float, and a geo-wrapped pump to prevent sediment from infiltrating the system. The contractor can also install check valves to ensure that water only goes in one direction, preventing backflow into the sump pit, which can lead to flooding.

If homeowners have water in more than just one basement area, they might also need to consider an interior tile drain system. A sump pump and pit will only resolve water in the general area of the pit. If the water is not directed to that area somehow, there will still be problems.

An interior tile drain system will capture water at its most common point of entry (the basement floor/wall joint) and will then direct it to the sump pump area to be flushed out and away from the home.

Stop water coming from the basement floor

Homeowners who educate themselves about basement water problems have taken the first step toward protecting their investment. After all, the last thing that they want to do is have to worry about water causing costly damage or ruining irreplaceable family items.

Accurate Builders of the Chesapeake provide foundation, basement, and crawlspace installation and repair for the greater Baltimore area homeowners.