Water leak from unground sprinkler systemHeavy rains that cause flooded yards, surface runoff and even leaking sprinkler systems from coming from you neighbour’s yard can cause your basement or crawlspace to flood.

Surface Water Runoff/Flooding

It happens from time to time, a neighbour changes their landscaping in some way or grades their property to where it slopes toward your home.  Sometimes the homeowner hasn’t made any changes; heavy rains can cause erosion that can change the course of the water runoff.  It is possible that your neighbour’s yard can make your yard flood and even flood your basement or crawlspace.

 

Sprinkler Systems

Contact your neighbour and let them know their sprinkler system is running overtime or causing your property to flood.  Sprinklers are not considered to be weather related and the neighbor could be liable.

 

Downspout Extensions

This situation can typically be addressed by just asking your neighbor to redirect the downspout away from your property.  Many times others do the work and the homeowner may not even be aware that the downspout is routed away from their yard and directly into yours.  Sometimes the downspouts can even be routed out to street drainage.

 cracks in troughs can lead to basement leaks

Lower Homeowners Beware!

In the past, many court systems have treated heavy or excessive rainwater flooding as a common enemy and as kind of a homeowner beware situation.  Homeowners were and are expected to protect their own property.  This type of flooding is not due to any type of carelessness but if you are the homeowner living on the lower lot, you should prepare for these types of rains and protect your property through protecting your basement as well as diverting the water.  Don’t wait until heavy rains cause a problem, if you know you’re home is lower ground, be prepared.

 Landscape grading toronto

Due Diligence

If you know that your property is lower and is at risk for this type of drainage/flooding issue, there are some things you can do to be proactive.  French drains around your home can help.  If you have a garage that is lower level, you may want to consider installing some trench drainage just outside the garage door.  Especially if your driveway slopes downs toward your garage door and home.  Runoff from the street can also run down your driveway and right into your garage, leaving a huge mess.

We see all too frequently homeowners who spend hours sweeping out water or shop vacuuming it up as quickly as it comes in.  A waterproofing contractor can help you address and repair this type of flooding.  Here’s a tip for you, when the heavy rains come, lots of basements get flooded and we get typically get inundated with calls, the best time to call a waterproofing company is when it’s dry and sunny outside.

 

Landscaping

It isn’t just changes in your neighbour’s yard that can cause your yard and home to flood, changes you make can cause your home to flood when it never has before.  Removal of a tree with a large root system or addition of shrubs and trees can change the way the drainage runs off.  Homeowners sometimes all their gutters to clog with leaves and this changes how the water is routed away from the home.  Instead of the water routing away through a downspout and away from the home, what happens is the gutters overflow in the areas where leaves have clogged them and pour straight down in that area.  If you’ve ever walked under a clogged gutter, you’ll know exactly what we mean by the water pouring down!

 

Good Old Fashioned Communication

While it’s frustrating to have a leak in your home whether your basement floods, your crawlspace leaks or your garage has puddles in it, probably the best piece of advice is to let cooler heads prevail.  Your neighbour isn’t intentionally trying to flood your home and may not even know there is an issue.  As we said before, if you own the lower piece of property, it’s more likely to happen and your neighbour certainly is liable.  Perhaps a combination of you making changes to your property and talking to your neighbor about redirecting his downspout extensions may solve your problem.

It’s always best to call a professional waterproofing company to assess the situation, give an estimate and design a repair that works the best for your situation.  There’s no greater feeling than to hear thunder, lightning and rain pouring outside and know your basement home is dry : )

Have a question about ongoing flooding in your basement?  Do you suspect your neighbor’s property may be at cause?  If you live in Toronto or the surrounding GTA, feel free to contact us here for a free in-home inspection and estimate.

Summer in Toronto are great, it provides a nice relief after a long and cold winter.  When it comes to your basement, a dry summer can give you relief from the spring rains that wrecked havoc on your basement.

While the weather is still nice, it’s a good opportunity to take some time to do a perimeter inspection around you house to see if there are potential water leak problems just waiting to happen.  The last thing you want is for heavy rains in the fall start creating water leaks in your basement.  The summer is a great time to look around and see if you can be proactive in solving your basement water problems before they happen.

Your Gutters

A common cause of basement leaks is saturated soil sitting around the foundation of your home.  One of the biggest culprits of this are your gutters.  Clogged or broken downspouts cause water to fall and pool around the perimeter of your home.  If your foundation is compromised in any way, the water will eventually make its way through the path of least resistance.  During your next rainfall, make sure your gutters and downspouts are directing water far enough away from your foundation to avoid water problems.

cracks in troughs can lead to basement leaks

Landscaping

Ideally, you’d like to have the area around your foundation graded so that water runs away from your foundation instead of towards it.  Just like with gutters, an improperly pitched landscape can cause major water issues in your basement.  If you notice the theme here, channeling water away from your foundation can go a long way in keeping your basement dry.

Landscape grading toronto

Your Swimming Pool and Sprinkler System

If you have an underground pump for your swimming pool or an underground sprinkler system, check them to be sure they are not leaking water.  Jon Portland from Discount Pool Supply says that a leak from a pool pump or hose, over the course of a summer, can totally saturate the soil around your home and even your neighbours if the are close by.  Do an inspection and make sure you’re not leaking water into the soil around your foundation from your pool system or underground sprinklers.

Discount-Pool-supply

Window Wells

Basement windows are a common cause of basement leaks.  Cracks, settling and worn caulking around the window makes for an easy target for water entering your basement.  If your basement window has a window well, do an inspection to be sure water is not pooling in the well after it rains and that it is draining properly.  If your window well doesn’t have a drainage system in place, consider having one installed so that rainwater is channeled away from your foundation instead of pooling up against it as is the case with a clogged window well.

window well in Toronto basement

Your Neighbours

Some of the neighborhoods here in Toronto and the GTA are congested.  Some areas leave little room between houses.  You may have done a great job keeping water away from your foundation, but your neighbour may not have.  In the case of swimming pool pumps, we solved a customers basement leak mystery when we discovered their neighbours water pump was leaking profusely and causing the soil on the side of their house to become saturated.  When it rained, this saturated soil became a lake, causing our customer’s basement to leak.  Take a look at your neighbours and see if they have any of the water issues discussed here and if they may affect your home in the process.

Nosey neighbors-dog looking over fence

Be proactive!

This whole inspection should take less than an hour and can save you some major headaches once the fall rains come and the snow follows.  Most basement leaks can be avoided by being proactive and taking care of your foundation and the area around it.

Have questions about a basement leak or window well?  If you live in Toronto or the GTA, contact us here for a free in-home inspection and estimate.

 

Cleaning a flooded basement carpetMany times a homeowner doesn’t realize they have a basement leak until it’s too late.  They discover the lake when the basement floods, when material possessions are ruined and memories are destroyed.  While it is possible sometimes that basements suddenly flood when they’ve never leaked before, often there have been symptoms and signs that are overlooked and, had they been acted upon, could have saved money, belongings and aggravation.  There are even some things a homeowner can do ahead of time to minimize their risk.

Looking for Leaky Basement Signs

Most of the time a leaky basement isn’t your first symptom.  If you have cinder block walls in your basement you may see a white powdery substance begin to appear on the walls, this is efflorescence, and many homeowners ignore this symptom and don’t realize the association with water leaks.  Efflorescence comes from  minerals in the water and if it’s working through your basement wall, that most often means there is water sitting on the outside of that wall, against those blocks and your foundation.

Protecting Your Walls

Painting your walls may visibly make the efflorescence disappear but it isn’t really going away.  Water may start seeping through that wall soon after.

In addition to a waterproof sealer that can be applied to the walls, putting up a vapor barrier or basement wall panels designed to inhibit the moisture soaking through to your basement.

White powder basment wall

Getting Rid of Odour

Another symptom that is overlooked is that damp, musty, moldy smell.  That smell can permeate the belongings in your basement, damaging them.  At the first sign of odors consider a whole house or commercial grade dehumidifier.

 

Water Heater Flooding

Flood rings are another proactive measure you can take.  Many homes have hot water heaters in their basement; they can leak or stop working and flood your basement, causing just as much damage as water leaking from the outside.  Flood rings are designed to warn homeowner about a leak and also containing the water temporarily until the issue can be solved.

iron bacteria in richmond hill home

Routing Away Roof Water

One of the most common causes of leaking and future structural issues is misdirected roof water.  Take a walk around your home and visibly check where your downspouts are routed to.  Do they stop at the corner of your home, right up against your foundation?  If so, they need to be routed away from your home by adding extensions to them.  It is even possible to bury the extension only leaving an exit spot 10 to 20 feet away from your home.  Placement really depends on how large your lot is as well as landscaping and proximity to other homes.  Downspout extensions are a fairly inexpensive way to prevent future issues with your home.

Ice damming on Toronto roof

Adjust the Grade

Do you have water that drips down from the top of your basement wall or creeps over and leaking through your ceiling?  Then you’ve probably changed the landscaping outside your home by adding shrubs, flowers and flower beds.  Worse yet, your neighbour may have done landscaping changes that has caused the new leak. Check where the grade is in relation to your basement walls.  If the grade sits above the top of your basement wall, it’s eventually going to come in up at the top of the wall and no matter what else you’ve done to address leaks, it will still come in and run down into your basement.  The same can be said for your crawlspace.

Adjusting the grade can also refer to the slope of the land outside your home.  Is your lot sloped down towards your home?  This can be a cause for leaks as well.  If you have a basement level garage its common for water to leak in under the garage door and you may need to consider having some trench drain installed just outside the door and have the water routed away.

 Don’t Finish Your Basement Without…..

It easy to lose count of the number of homeowners who tell us they finished without proactively waterproofing.  Wet sheetrock, ruined paneling and carpeting are no fun and a costly loss.  Don’t finish your basement without making sure your home is safe from leaking.  Call a professional waterproofing company and have them check your home to see if they notice signs of past water leakage.

Don’t Wait!

Probably the best advice in terms of being proactive about your basement is not to wait.  Don’t wait until you have a huge problem and your basement floods completely.  You’ve probably seen signs or symptoms or even had a little water in some time in the past but it doesn’t happen often or it’s only leaking in a storage area so you’re not concerned.  As professional in the business, we can tell you that these situations never get better, they tend to get worse over time and more expansive to repair.

Repair the whole area; don’t just address a portion of it that is most worrisome.  Water follows the path of least resistance so stopping only one or two areas will only send that water to another area to come in.

A small leak can turn into a bigger one and letting the leak go can not only cause damage to your belongings, it can damage the structure of your home through erosion and hydrostatic pressure as well as through mold growth.  Address the problem before they become a major inconvenience.

Have questions about a leak in your basement?  If you live in Toronto or the GTA, feel free to contact us here for a free in-home inspection and estimate.

 

 

George Mino Home Inpector NewmarketWhen it comes to the home buying process, nobody likes surprises, especially when those surprises involve foundation cracks and mold in the home.  Problems like these that are uncovered during the home buying process can stop a deal in its tracks.  Today, we were lucky enough to speak to George Mino of GWN Home Inspections.  George has been inspecting homes in and around Toronto for a number of years and is here today to offer some insights for both home buyers and sellers.

1- George, you’ve been inspecting homes throughout the GTA for a number of years, what are some of the most common problems you find when inspecting a basement?

The most common is the smell of mildew in the home/ which potential homebuyers do not like. It’s found mainly in older homes and suggests a moisture issue. foundation cracks are also quite common. They can be on the outside and inside and i have noted a lot of outside corner cracks lately on my inspections throughout the GTA.

2- How do potential home buyers react when you find a foundation or water leak issue during the course of your inspection?  Is this a major concern for homebuyers and does it cause some people to walk away?

Some buyers will get scared and walk away but for the most part non-structural cracks can be repaired. After this is explained  it usually becomes more a matter cost and who will pay for the repair.  Costs can vary from a few hundred dollars to several thousand, depending on the type of crack and the repair method that will be used.
3- What about the issue of mold?  Nobody wants it in their home, is this a major concern with home buyers and how do they react when you indicate the presence of mold in the home?
It depends on the infestation. Little spots on the caulking in the bathtub can be cleaned and bathroom exhaust fans can be installed or windows
can be opened to get the moisture out of the room. Generally if the moisture issue is resolved than the mold issue can be cleaned up. However large infestations (10ft x 10ft ) can and have killed a deal and I have had people walk away even after the seller has agreed to the remediation.

4- How are these issues usually handled?  Does the seller or buyer typically pay for the repairs?

The seller typically pays for the remediation as a condition of the sale.  It’s usually a better idea to have these things repaired before placing it on the market as an extensive mold issue may devalue the home in the eyes of the potential buyer.

5- If someone is getting ready to put their home up for sale and have known foundation and water issues, what advice would you give them?  Should they list the house at a reduced price or have the repairs made before listing?

Foundation issues can be serious and require a professional to identify if they are structural or not. Moisture issues can be as simple as a plumbing leak or a grading issue and can be addressed easily. I tend to error on the side of caution when it comes to through the wall cracks and call for a professional foundation contractor for repair. These repairs should be done before the house goes on the market .

6- Any other advice for homeowners when it comes to foundation and water problems?

Walk around the house and look for grading issues ( the ground should slope away from the house ). Gutters and downpipes should be in good repair and carry the water away from the house . If after a storm there is puddling than upgrade that area. And always look for Cracks in the exposed foundation wall inside and out.

7- Is there anything a homeowner can do before actually putting their home on the market when it comes to spotting problems like this?

Yes, pre-listing inspections are becoming more common.  This is where a home inspector like myself is hired before the home is listed to spot any potential problems that should be addresses before the home is actually listed.  A pre-listing inspection can uncover problems that can be addresses before a potential home buyer spots them, helping to preserve both real and perceived value of the home.

8- Thanks George, that was great.  How can people find you?
You can go to my website at GWM Home Inspections or you can call me at 289-231-6567. I’m available for home inspection services in the Greater Toronto Area.