Basement Waterproofing District Heights

District Heights isn’t a big place, and its humble origins include only a few business and less than 30 homes by the 1930s. But being less than 10 miles away from Washington D.C. and providing a safe, secure place to live and raise a family has made this this town a convenient, productive place for people to call home. District Heights is small, but it’s a place with history and a perfect environment for a family.

It’s also a place where those same families may not even know that there’s are potential problems brewing right under their feet. While most of the attention in a home is placed on fixing visible hazards like a roof or a broken window, the basement is often neglected. Doing this, especially for prolonged periods of time, can cause serious, expensive problems, which is why basement waterproofing in District Heights is so important.

How Water Gets In

The basement may seem like a massive, immovable thing that your home sits on, but concrete, as solid as it is, is essentially a porous material, meaning that it lets water in. That water can pass directly through concrete as vapor, to condense once again in liquid form in the cooler temperature of a basement. In sufficient quantity, water can simply pour through all the tiny holes in concrete too gather on walls, or stream down and collect on the floor.

In some cases, concrete may not have been properly mixed before being poured to make the basement walls, resulting in “honeycomb” areas where water from rain, snow and even watering the lawn can easily enter. But the worst offender for water coming is through cracks. A basement wall may crack because of poor construction or, more seriously, part of the home’s foundation is shifting, slowly tearing the home apart. This can also crack the basement floor, though sufficient hydrostatic pressure from below can also inflict the same kind of damage.

All of these are serious problems that basement waterproofing in District Heights can repair. And it’s important to seriously consider giving these issues the attention they deserve, because with time, they only get bigger.

Why Is Water Bad?

In the long term, the biggest issue with water getting into a basement is that is a symptom of a much larger problem that will get worse without attention. Water means that either faulty construction, or changes in the environment have damaged the protection your home is supposed to provide you and your family. Ignoring the warning signs of water simply means you are giving permission for these problems to grow worse, rather than seeking the help of teams experienced in basement waterproofing in District Heights.

Water in the basement contributes to a damp environment, and darkness, dampness and cool temperatures are the conditions mold needs to settle down, mature and breed into mold colonies that can infest an entire basement. Once they take hold, mold sends numerous invisible spores into the air that put everyone in a home at risk of illness. Some molds contain pathogens that can potentially result in lung infection, meaning that not only has your home lost value because of the mold growing in it, it’s now a health hazard to occupants.

Water can also affect delicate hardware in a basement, with furnaces, water heaters and even laundry machines at risk if water accumulates in large amounts. Even if the water doesn’t pool in levels high enough to hurt hardware, any water that enters your basement and remains there can be a potential breeding ground for insects like the Asian Tiger Mosquito, which is now native to Maryland, and, unfortunately, is capable of transmitting both West Nile and Zika Virus. It only needs a minute amount of water in which to lay eggs, and a pool in the floor of a basement, left undisturbed, is perfect. This is the definitely the kind of hazard that basement waterproofing in District Heights needs to address for the safety not just of a family in the home, but everyone in a neighborhood.

How To Fix The Problem

Basement waterproofing in District Heights can take place through a number of different ways, depending on what kind of situation the homeowner is in. For water problems that have already caused a mold infestation to take root, the immediate priority is getting the mold out first. This is a major health hazard to both residents and anyone trying to repair other water issues, so it needs to be dealt with. Mold remediation is a common service here, first eliminating the mold itself, then treating the area the mold colony was located, so as to prevent a relapse. Once that problem has been dealt with, the other issues can be safely tackled.

If water is coming through because of problems with the foundation, then some foundation repair will be in order. There are a variety of different ways that foundation problems can be corrected, depending on the situation. For example, if there are cracks in the wall, these can be sealed, though some additional work will need to be done to see if the foundation itself has moved or settled and if the foundation is continuing to move, that must be taken care of as well, to prevent more cracks from occurring.

Waterproofing itself may be the last procedure, or the very first, if you are taking a more preventive stance about basement waterproofing in District Heights. By putting a water vapor barrier around your foundation, you can prevent water from penetrating your basement walls. If you’re in a low lying area where large amounts of water will naturally accumulate, French drains and sump pumps to control and redirect water flow may be the perfect solution to keeping the damage under control.

Whatever your needs are, if you want basement waterproofing in District Heights done on your home, you should consult with the experts. At AA Action Waterproofing, we have the tools, the experience and the expertise to solve all of these problems.