If there’s one concern on the minds of nearly every U.S. resident this year, it’s whether or not their insurance policies protect their belongings against water damage caused by heavy rainstorms and flooding. Nearly every area across the country experienced unusually high amounts of rainfall this past summer, and the West Coast has been hit pretty hard throughout September with inclement weather. While a few heavy rainfalls may not be a huge concern for most American homeowners, the amount of storm damage recently caused in certain flood prone areas has made it clear that a significant group of homeowners and renters are struggling with costly erosion problems.
Let’s face it: you certainly can’t control the weather, and it would take a lot of work to restructure the entire landscape surrounding your house. And unfortunately, these two factors are usually the biggest culprits when it comes to determining whether or not your house is likely to have drainage problems.
What you can control, however, is making sure that your house has its own protection when the rainstorms come around. One of the simplest preventative measures you can take to protect your house against storm damage is to have a waterproofing system (either interior or exterior) installed in your basement.
First of all, you’ll be able to have some peace of mind when you have a waterproofing system installed in your basement, because you’ll be able to use it as a storage space or a living space without fear of suddenly discovering that you have an (unwanted) indoor swimming pool.
Second, a house with a waterproofed basement tends to have more value than one without any waterproofing systems installed. Maybe you aren’t thinking about selling your house anytime soon, but you know that you’ll have to part with it eventually, and anything you can do now to ensure that its value doesn’t decrease would certainly be a good investment.
And finally, you definitely don’t want to wait until your house already has storm damage before seeking a solution. Not only will water damage lead to the growth of molds and mildews, which can be extremely dangerous to your health, but the average cost to repair a basement with water damage is anywhere between $3,000 – $5,000. You definitely don’t want to spend that kind of money any time a storm rolls along, and we don’t want you to, either.
Keep in mind that, regardless of the cost of basement waterproofing systems, it’s something that you can plan for, save for, and never pay for again. But the cost of repairing and replacing your personal items when an unexpected storm hits? That’s not so easy to manage, and there’s no reason why you should have to.
