Water Damage and Preventing It From the Outside

When talking about preventing water damage, one of the most important places to start is outside the home. Making sure rain and flood waters run away from your home instead of settling around the foundation is essential to prevent the weakening of it. Water will not only cause structural damage, but it will loosen the soil in the ground around the house and cause it to sink over time.

If you live in an extreme climate such as on that receives an exceptional amount of rainfall or snowfall every year, you need to take some extra measures to prevent water damage to your home, since it’s likely to occur in these areas more than in some others. The more rain a home is subject to receiving upon it every year, the more likely it will seep inside and cause water damage to your home’s structural integrity. Make sure soil at the base of the home is piled upward so that water drains away from the foundation and into another area of the yard; if you can, have it drain into the ditch that usually runs beside most homes just next to the road.

Sometimes your gutters can be overloaded by water if the rainfall is harder than normal, so the gutters attached to the outside of your home need to be as large as necessary to handle a large amount of water. They should remain clear of debris such as leaves, sticks, and anything else that can stop them up. Being sure these are cleaned thoroughly might be a pain, but when you think about the money that’s spent on water damaged homes every year, you’re actually saving yourself a lot of trouble.

Be sure the downspouts that are connected to your gutters are free and clear of debris both inside them and down at the ground level so the water collected by your gutters doesn’t collect around the base of the house.

Your roof should be built at such an angle that water is not able to merely sit standing on any part of it for any period of time. Standing water on your roof will cause weak spots and will begin to leak inside the house and eventually cause standing water there, as well. Insulation soaks up water like candy and once it’s wet, it’s no longer effective and becomes a breeding ground for mold and other fungi.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
Los Angeles water damage and restoration services and Denver water damage restoration companies.