SERVPRO of Great Neck Port Washington provides Annual Spring Home Maintenance Tips

3/20/2014 (Permalink)

Home Maintenance Tips provided by State Farm Insurance

Once spring has sprung, take some time to give your home a check-up along with its annual spring-cleaning. Adding these home maintenance tips to your routine can help your house operate more efficiently:

The Water Heater

Look around the base of your water heater for evidence of leaks. The average lifespan of a water heater is 8-12 years. If your water heater is over 5 years old, it should be checked monthly for any leakage or rusting at the bottom. If water leakage or rust is found, the water heater should be replaced. If you live in an area with particularly hard water, you may need to drain your water heater because of the sediment buildup in the tank.

The Basement and Attic

Does your attic or basement smell musty? If you have an attic, check it for leaks from the roof. Inspect the underside of the roof and the insulation closely for any discoloration, deterioration or dirt stains, as the leaking water might have dried up.

Check the basement walls, floor, and trim for water stains or any signs of seepage through the foundation. There are a number of flooding causes; read more about wet basements for preparation. While you’re down there, keep a close eye on your sump pump, making sure it is still in good working order, and has a battery backup in place if necessary.

Wet Basements

Unexpected water in your basement can damage walls and floors, destroy carpeting, ruin furniture and lead – pretty quickly – to mold. And perhaps the most upsetting of all: As basements are so often used for storage, water downstairs can ruin irreplaceable items like photo albums, antiques, and family heirlooms. When you experience a flooded basement for the first time, it’s imperative to determine if the water problems are going to reoccur or if it was a one-time event. Can you safely leave your property downstairs once you’ve got the mess cleaned up? Or does everything need to come upstairs immediately? What’s certain is that if water in your basement is a consistent problem, it’s time to start making decisions. Determining where the water is coming from is essential to solving this problem. What Happened? Beyond observable flooding around your home and in your neighborhood, there are several common sources of water entering basements:

- Surface water running down foundation walls Groundwater in water-saturated soils being pushed into the basement by hydrostatic pressure

- Storm sewer water from the municipal storm sewer system backing up into the home's existing perimeter foundation drain and leaking into the basement

- Sanitary sewer water from a clog in your home’s sewer line, the municipal sewer line, or the combined municipal storm/sanitary sewer system backing up into the home's drain system, causing sewer water to come up through sink drains and floor drains on lower levels

Each source has its own particularities and requires its own course of action. Find out more about your home’s drainage system by consulting a contractor or plumber.

Surface Water

If this is the first instance of water problems in your basement, the first thing to check for is surface water draining down next to the foundations. Water coming in at one location or only at the exterior foundation wall indicates surface water problems. Here are some things to look for once you get outside:

Overflowing Gutters: Leaves

Keeping gutters clean of debris should be a part of every homeowner's routine maintenance program. Depending on the surrounding trees, gutter cleaning may be required a few times a year. Products are also available to prevent leaves from getting into the gutters in the first place.

Overflowing Gutters: Downspouts

You can do a self-check (your gutters must be cleaned out first). After at least 15 minutes of heavy rain, check your gutters. Any water overflowing out of the gutters is running down next to the house foundations. Even if the water is not getting into the basement, it could be eroding soil from under the house footings, which can lead to cracking of walls and ceilings. The easiest solutions to overflowing gutters are to either add another downspout on that run of gutter or to increase the size of the downspout. The best solution between these two is probably adding another downspout; the second downspout can act as a backup if the other gets blocked.

Downspout Distance

Downspouts should extend 10 feet from your home. While many homeowners do not like downspouts extending out this far, 10 feet is the minimum distance needed to discharge water coming off your roof far enough away from the house.

Pavement Slope

Sometimes paving settles over time and water flow can change direction toward the house. If this is the case, the paving should be removed and replaced so it slopes away from the home.

Sealant

Sealant around pavement that abuts the house sometimes cracks over time due to age or incorrect installation. If the sealant is cracked, it must be removed and replaced with new sealant.

Landscape Slope

Does your yard or the land around your home slope away from your home? It should. Look for any depressions in the ground next to the home foundation walls. If any are found, fill in with dirt so the water drains away from the house. Use a clay-type soil that sheds water instead of sandy soil that allows water to soak into the ground.

Irrigation

Avoid placing lawn irrigation next to the house. Make sure the irrigation system includes a working rain gauge so the system does not turn on when there has already been plenty of rain for the plants and lawn.

Controlling Subsurface Groundwater

When the groundwater levels outside the basement rise above the level of the floor, the basement acts like a boat in a pond. If a boat is sitting in water, water will leak in through any open cracks or holes. It works the same way with a basement. Hydrostatic pressure can push water through hairline cracks. Symptoms of this are water coming up through cracks in the basement concrete floor or water coming in at multiple locations. If you have an older house within town and the house has a basement with no sump pump, it is likely the perimeter foundation drain system connects directly into the city storm sewer system. If the level of the basement is below the street level, there is the potential of storm water backing up in the city storm sewer system and being pushed into the perimeter foundation drain system. This can saturate the soils around the house at the basement level with storm water under hydrostatic pressure, causing water to leak in.

Storm Water Backing Up Into Your Home

In many older houses with basements (mostly pre-1980), there is a perimeter foundation drain outside the exterior wall, at the level of the basement floor, next to the footings at the time the house was built. A pipe was usually installed from the perimeter foundation drain to the street where it was connected to the city storm sewer system. This can become a problem as the city storm sewer system becomes too small when more development causes more rain runoff. When this happens, the rainwater in the sewer system can get so high that water flows backwards toward the house. If you believe you have this problem, contact an experienced contractor for advice.

Sanitary Sewer Water Backing Up Into Your Home

During heavy rains, combined sewer systems can become overwhelmed with water. This can cause sewer water to back up in the system and sometimes into homes. Sewer backups can be caused by individual service lines being plugged by grease, waste, tree roots, breaks in pipes or saturated ground. Sewer mains can also be plugged by vandalism or large items dropped down manholes. In order to keep your individual lines clear, you can install backflow preventers that help stop sewer water from flowing backward into the house. Proper maintenance of your individual lines – for example, pouring tree root killer down your toilets once a year – can also go a long way in preventing sewage backups.