It’s is a philosophical question, and different people will give you different answers. Some would simply say you’re just not paying attention to the exterior of your building, in which case, interior problems can result.
Essentially, though, people who deal with this on a regular basis agree that if you’re getting new water into the home, it’s probably a result of clogged or malfunctioning gutters directing stormwater in against the foundation, or diverting water in other ways.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Here’s the problem for many property owners – they’re too busy to really accurately keep on top of how their stormwater infrastructure, which is complex and distributed, is protecting (or failing to protect) their building footprint.
Unless you get up on a ladder and look at your gutters from month to month, also peering into the downspouts and evaluating roofing, you’re not likely to be fully up to speed on how your system is handling stormwater. To make it even more difficult, you’d have to be watching while the water comes down to really notice many of these problems.
So for most property owners, the first warning signs happen when they start getting small amounts of water in a basement or elsewhere in home. But those warning signs often go unnoticed, too, unless someone is sitting in these vulnerable areas during every storm.
Gutters and Foundations
The general story goes like this – a gutter or downspout gets gradually blocked by debris or other material, and diverts more stormwater toward the foundation. When that problem reaches critical mass, you suddenly start seeing water seeping in through concrete block.
One tongue-in-cheek way to explain this is to say – if there’s water coming in, are there plants growing out of your exterior gutters? If so, you’re almost sure to see that debris and blockage drive water into your interior.
If not, though, you’re probably still dealing with a gutter problem that’s still there, but harder to see.
Another major problem is that these problems happen gradually over time. They don’t happen all at once. The places that were dry are suddenly not dry, and getting wetter. Or you have a problem on day one, because the last building owner wasn’t paying attention at all. Maybe the house was closed up for months, on the market, and the problems were just getting worse.
One of the best bulletproof ways to address the situations head-on is to get professionals out to inspect. Call The Gutter People in mainline PA communities and we will help you to get on top of these kinds of problems. It’s what we do!