STOP the Rain before it gets in! 3 Easy Measures to help prevent flooding.

In this episode of Real Estate in Edmonton, Tracie puts Devin in the hot seat to discuss practical, affordable ways homeowners can reduce the risk of water damage. From cleaning gutters and checking your roof to proper grading, sump pumps, weeping tile, foundation maintenance, and reviewing your home insurance, you'll learn the preventative measures that could save you thousands of dollars.

They also share lessons learned from their own rental properties and explain exactly what to do if water ever does find its way into your home.

Whether you're a long-time Edmonton homeowner, a first-time buyer, or thinking about making Edmonton home, this episode is packed with valuable advice to help protect one of your biggest investments.

In this episode you'll learn:

• Why so many homes experience water issues
• The biggest causes of basement water seepage
• Simple maintenance that can help prevent flooding
• The importance of grading, gutters, downspouts, and sump pumps
• What your home insurance policy may (or may not) cover
• The first steps to take if water gets into your home

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? We'd love to hear from you!

Real Estate in Edmonton — where we talk real estate... and real life.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Getting water in the basement is never fun. In fact, it sucks. So we're going to talk about three easy preventative measures that you can take to make sure that you mitigate and hopefully eliminate any chance of you getting water in your basement.

SPEAKER_00 0:14

This is Real Estate in Edmonton, helping you navigate buying, selling, investing, and living in Edmonton, hosted by Realtor Devin Gray and professional broadcaster Tracy Gray.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

Welcome, I'm Tracy Gray, and this is Devin Gray, award-winning real estate agent, and he's with EXP Realty Group as well as Mogul Realty Group. And so we're here to talk about getting water in the basement because we've certainly been there. That's happened to us firsthand experience, unfortunately, more than once. We've had rental properties that have had water in the basement, our own living spaces that have as well. And so we want to try and help you to avoid that at all costs.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

That's right. And so these three preventative measures are to help keep water away from the property. The best way to keep water out of a property is to keep water away from the property. It's important to also remember that concrete is porous. Water will make its way through cement and concrete just a little bit over time. And then, of course, obviously, older homes will get foundational cracks. And if you've got a fully finished basement, then it's tough to know that those cracks are there until it's too late. So preventative measure number one is start at the top. You want to get up on a ladder, you want to take out the roofing system, starting with the eavesstroughs. Um, muddied up and cluttered and full eaves troughs will stop water from going where it's supposed to go, which is in the downspouts and out the drain and away from the property. Um, a lot of people will get caught, especially with areas that have lots of trees, that they probably need to be up there almost twice a year in regards to cleaning out the eavesdroughs. And where a lot of people, other uh other people get caught is oh, well, I don't have any trees around, so there's not really any of a problem. Well, we get a lot of wind in our area, and that carries debris, and you can get dirt. And uh, you mentioned uh kid's tennis ball.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

That's right. That actually happened to me once cleaning out the gutter, and there was a tennis ball, and our neighbor's kid is like, Oh, that's mine. We had no idea that it was up there.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

You might end up with a bird's nest in there. So you it's important to yes, okay, gently remove whatever's in there, but it's really important to get up there at least once a year. Uh, the best time to do it is during your spring cleaning, you're getting out, you're looking at what you're gonna do with the with the yard. You want to get up on the ladder and you want to have uh a good look at the eavestroughs. Again, coming back to areas that have lots of trees. That's why for a very, very good investment, you might want to get one of those leaf guard systems where the leaves don't get into the eaves troughs. Um, it still can potentially get a little bit of stuff in there, and you still want to get up there and take a look. But if you don't have that leaf guard system, then you definitely want to get up on the eaves.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

And you may have even seen this. Um, just driving around, we've seen houses that the eavestroughs are so full with debris, you can actually see stuff growing in the eavestrough. It looks like a little planter on that.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

Elevated garden system.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

That's a good sign that you need to clean your cover. So that's your house.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. And while you're up there, um, you might as well take a look at how the shingles are doing. Um, you know, you know that shingles are starting to go when they start to curl up. Now, if you can see that from down on the ground, then you're really in trouble. It means that you really need to get on your uh your roof updating uh pretty quickly. Uh, but you can start to see when you're up close if they're starting to go. Um, sometimes you'll catch the odd missing shingle. And uh, those are key things to catch to make sure that you don't have uh any water penetration anywhere in the house. Um but again, starting with those eaves, you really want to make sure that those are clean.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Yeah. Um check for crack shingles, missing ones, all of those things, eaves troughs. It's actually not that difficult to clean an eaves trough. And if you really don't want to do it, there's lots of companies you can hire for not that much money. Yes. It really is very affordable compared to what it would cost you if you get seepage of water into your basement. That can be thousands to tens of thousands of dollars as opposed to a hundred bucks to have someone come clean your gutters for you.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Most homeowners don't like to do preventative measures. They go, well, nothing's wrong. Well, in this case, it doesn't have to be very expensive. It's just about getting up on a ladder and having a look. And then we're gonna work our way down uh from the eaves troughs into the downspouts and taking a look at the drainage. Now, a lot of times I'll come across houses that don't have water moving anywhere at all away from the house, or that they might have a drainage or a downspout that might move two or three feet away. You really want to be six plus feet, ideally eight plus feet uh from the house to really get that water away from the house. If you have that downspout only one or two feet away, basically what you're doing is you're just uh concentrating that water, like a waterfall, going right down into that corner of the house and uh uh saturating the ground and putting in a position where the water has to go somewhere and it starts to starts to uh uh work its way through um any foundational cracks or even just seeping in through the cement. So you really want to push that water away from the house.

SPEAKER_02 5:19

And make sure that the downspout is there because downspouts fall off. If people are mowing lawns, sometimes they turn them and that can make the whole thing come down. Winds can blow them down. Um I've seen it where neighbors go in people's yards and take theirs down because the downspout's pointed at their house. So make sure the downspout is there and pointed in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Yeah. That's right. And so now finally that we're on the ground and we're dealing with the drainage, then the last thing and and uh I mean they're all important, but this one is very key is grating. Um, if you have level grating or inverted grating where the the the ground is actually going towards the house, again, you're you're creating this situation where the water is actually moving to the house and putting it right up against your foundation and putting so much pressure on there if the ground is saturated, like it has been in our area with these record rainfalls, that the water has to go somewhere and it starts to work its way into the house either through foundational cracks, even just tiny little cracks, or just simply seeping through the concrete. And so it's important um, certainly every probably two to three years, but definitely every five years to look at doing regrading. And you want a definite pronounced slope away from the house uh in order to basically have most of that water be moving again, that four or five feet away from the house.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Like we had a rental property that the foundation on it was so old that the concrete, the basement specialist said uh had actually honeycombed. And it's because if you took a good look at the concrete, it actually made little shapes like honeycombs, and that was from years of water attacking it. And the water will actually come right through the concrete, um, even without like a big foundation crack or anything on it. But he said you don't need to replace it necessarily. Again, it would depend um on your foundation itself. But even with it honeycombing, he said the best thing to do clean out the gutters, check for the things that Devin was talking about, but then also um to add ideally a sump pump uh because there wasn't one for that property. And so that can really help too. A lot of homes come with them now, but um, this was a very, very old house, and so it didn't have one. So adding a sump pump would help because he said you can't necessarily ever stop the water from coming in the house, but if you can keep it away from the foundation that it could seep through, then you don't have to worry about it. And so um if the water is just running straight through the sump pump, it's not building up next to the foundation and coming in through something like a honeycomb uh concrete situation or cracks along the foundation as well.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Yeah, great points. And also another thing to take a look at, and of course, we all want our yards to look beautiful and uh it's a lovely view of the house when you've got bushes and trees that are right up close to the house and flower beds, but that's attracting water to those plants are attracting water, and that means that that water is also really close to the foundation. So it's unfortunate, but you really don't want to have those flower beds and those uh bushes and stuff like that right up against the house, you're better off to to pull that stuff away. Yeah, um, also big trees, um they're they're they're you know, those roots are going out all over the yard, and um, if they're able to find water close to uh close to the foundation, they're gonna continue to push towards the house. And you might even start to get some uh some roots pushing up against the foundation and causing some damage there as well.

SPEAKER_02 8:40

Yeah, and then uh we've even added weeping tile, that that same house that had the honeycombing concrete. Right. Uh we added weeping tile to it as well so that the water goes into the weeping tile along the border of the house or along the perimeter, and and then that would take it to the sump pump and then away from the house. So you just want to try and get that water to not be standing or running along the house. Anything you can do to keep that off of there. And I know the flower bed one is tough because it looks so pretty when you've got flowers all around your house, but watering them right next to your house, too, not good for your foundation.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

So those are the three big preventative measures: the roof system, cleaning out your eaves troughs, uh, the drainage, making sure the water is away from the house, and the grating. Now we're gonna talk a little bit about what happens if you do end up with water in the basement.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Yeah. So um, what can be a surprise for a lot of people is insurance policies don't automatically cover seepage from outside the house.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

And so you should check with your insurance if you're not sure if that's included, check your policy because you might not be included on your insurance for water coming in from outside. So that's number one, what I would do right now is check that you're covered for that. Yeah. Uh the other thing too is like Devin said, as soon as you start to get water in the house, make sure that you, your family, anyone that's in the home with you is safe. If there's enough water where it's approaching electrical outlight uh outlets, appliances, and that you do need to turn the power off in those areas to keep yourself safe. So, number one, make sure that you're safe. Um, don't worry so much about your belongings. Just um take care of yourself. Then the other one, too, is uh as quickly as possible, try and keep as much water out as possible. I don't think most people have sandbags kicking around their house. No. But if you can put those around to help lock the water, most people don't have sandbags around. Um you can clear leaves or debris from window wells because window wells are usually built to help um take the water out. But if you have leaves, sometimes newspapers, bags, stuff like that. I guess, I guess not newspapers anymore. That's that's dating me. But the flyers you get in the mail, those will build up in the window wells. Make sure all that stuff is cleared out and then the window wells should be set up to help that water drain out. But inside the house, um, what I've done when we've got water in our basement is um a shop vac.

SPEAKER_01 11:06

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:06

Everybody should have a wet dry shop vac because that works amazing. And then another one too, I didn't have a shop vac when it first happened to me. And so I would put down towels where the water was coming in, and then I would pick the towel up and throw it in the dryer. I would run the towel over to the other side of the basement. Yeah, wring it out really good, throw it in the dryer, run it over. And I just kept this going uh with every towel that I had helping to soak up as much water to um create the least amount of damage in the house. But though there wasn't enough water coming in that I had to worry safety-wise for it. So this was a process that I kept doing. I think I put some uh blankets down and stuff like that too. Whatever you can take to um help soak up that water. But shop back, if you do have a shop back, Candy, that's another really good one as well. Take pictures and video while it's happening, contact your insurance company to start a claim, and they can help get a mediator override or uh not a mediator, um an insurance adjuster. Remediator.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Oh, and a remediation team.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

They'll get a remediation team in to help you out because that is essential to get a remediation team in because they know the process, they know what to do. Um, yeah, and then standing water, getting rid of that quickly. I think we talked about that.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

Yeah, and ideally, if um, you know, there's more than one person in the house or you've got friends that are able to come and help you, is it it really is helpful to tackle uh those three preventative measures again, um, and then have people doing what Tracy was saying. So you really want to have somebody working to clean out the house, but at the same time, you you're wanting to try to stop all that excess water coming in by getting that water away from the house. So while somebody's in the house or people are in the house um getting rid of that water through a pump or a shop back or the towel idea that Tracy said, you also want somebody outside getting those eaves troughs cleaned, um, ultimately the grading and getting that drainage moved away. Um and then that way you have you because keep in mind, like water is an amazing thing, it just never stops. And so if you've got water coming in and you don't have any way of pushing that water away from the house, it's just gonna keep coming in. And and you're you're just dealing with the symptoms and not necessarily dealing with the issues. So you really do kind of want to set up two fronts, so to speak. One getting that water away, and two, obviously doing what you can to uh mitigate what's happening inside. And uh, you know, you know, first off, um, you know, minimizing the water damage, keeping yourself safe and and working on a cleanup.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

Yeah, and uh fans are a good one for helping to get all the quickly, yeah. But don't put them anywhere where it is wet, have them far enough back. Again, keep all electrical out of the wet areas. You don't even want to walk through it holding something that's plugged in. Um, so fans are a really good one. Dehumidifiers if you have access to one. Uh once the rain has stopped, open the windows and let the air come in and help to dry that too. Any belongings that you do have in the area, once everybody's safe, once you've contacted insurance, once you've started measures to help prevent water from coming in or sopping up what is there, then you can start to move belongings out of the affected area to get those out of there. And uh that'll help stop them from getting water damage. Uh, and yeah, those are the the best steps that we recommend and that we have done. Uh, you might have some more, which you can throw in the comments. We would love to hear them because uh any measures that you can take to stop water coming in, it's the worst.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Not only uh what we've done in the past, but just with recent situations um helping clients and and uh and and seeing what other people have been doing with all the water uh damaged basements that I've seen over the course of the past couple of weeks. Um these are the steps you've got to take to try to um get that basement cleaned up and uh and also keep that water away from the house. The other thing as well, uh great suggestion on the um the on the fan uh is an ozonator. Um, if uh it does start to get a little bit uh mildewy in there. I don't know. The ozonator is uh basically kind of cleans the air, it uh kind of dissipates some of the smell.

SPEAKER_02 15:18

Well, yeah, and because you have to watch for mold.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

That's a whole other thing, yeah. Which is really why we're trying to say all this other stuff. You want to get that clean and dry as quickly as possible, because if there's any area that um, and this is another topic for another time, but um uh mold likes uh dark, damp places. So you don't want any dark, damp places, or you will start to have some mold.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

Well, and and uh that one rental property that I was talking about already that we had water come in. Um, one of the ways that we knew there was water coming in inside the walls was there were mushrooms growing on the baseboards to make. Yes. That's a pretty good sign that you've got some water coming in.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

So you read it open up a farmer's market in there.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

At least make a salad, right? Basement mushrooms, the yum yum. Hey, you gotta make lemonade, right? When the world throws you lemons, when it throws you rain, make a mushroom salad. We did not eat the mushrooms, we did get them out of there, got it remediated, all fixed up, and now we know the steps to take to help keep water out, but it can still happen. But um, hopefully, watching this, you won't ever have to get seepage in your basement, no matter where you're living at. Um, these are the steps that we recommend to help prevent it from ever happening.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Yeah. All right, we hope that's been helpful. So thanks for joining us on Real Estate at Edison, where we talk real estate and real life. Until next time.

SPEAKER_02 16:49

Thanks for watching.