Dry Soils Shrink Away from Foundations – Water pours in the basement

 

It’s been a wonderful rainy 2 days in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.  With severe drought conditions spreading across New England, the rain is a much welcomed weather event!  Everything has been so dried out that you’re probably thinking “Excellent, the ground will finally absorb all that rain and the lawns will be green again.”.  As we all know, the rain doesn’t always go where you want it to go when it finally arrives and it never arrives when you want it to.  We are sure that the one thing you may not be thinking about is an old, dried out potted plant, like the one in the image above.  If you are finding water or extreme dampness in your basement now, thank the neglected potted plant syndrome.

Our Basement Waterproofing Project Manager Beth offers up her own analogy to customers, “After a dry period, the rain will run straight into the spaces created by drought and dry and shrinking soils, much like the space created in the pot where a potted plant had dried out.”  With the deluge of rain we have had, all that water is running straight for the crevices and cracks in dry, compact soils.  The dried out ground is not capable of handling the sudden influx of water and offers little absorption until it really becomes wet and almost saturated.  Right now, your home is the pot and the ground around it has shrunk back from the foundation.  All of that water will build and pool against the bottom of the foundation.  Once the water makes it way through the dry soil and hits the compact soil, there’s no place left to go but in! Before you know it, your basement is wet.

If you are seeing water in the basement or coming from a bulkhead, you may not want to wait until the ground is saturated and absorbing water as other issues may be to blame.  Call us to set up an evaluation with Beth to ensure that your basement is safe from water and dampness issues or click to request a basement evaluation!