A finished basement in Omaha can be a wonderful thing—it gives you more room to store your possessions and additional living space you can stretch out and relax in. Whatever purpose your finished basement serves, whether it’s a home theater, billiard room, or simply a space to store family mementos, it can be a great way to boost your home’s property value and give you extra entertaining space for your family and guests. However, a finished basement is also the one area in your home most vulnerable to water damage in Omaha.
A flooded basement can lead to all sorts of problems that you don’t want to deal with, like mold and mildew growth, and that’s why our team of basement water damage restoration specialists here at Restoration Now! Omaha want you to take a close look at your finished basement—only by understanding how your basement is built can you identify problem areas before they lead to huge and potentially dangerous issues for you and your family!
Block Construction and Flooded Basement Water Damage
This is one of the most common methods of constructing basement walls. Block construction is exactly what it sounds like—pre-cast concrete blocks (like oversized bricks) are used to create the walls. If your basement walls are exposed, it’s very easy to see whether your home’s builders used this method; if you can see mortared joints and seams in your basement walls, chances are they were built using block construction.
The problem with this construction method, though, is that the seams and joints in the walls are great places for water damage to infiltrate. If your basement slab shifts for any reason, these joints and seams can loosen (ever see those zig-zag lines on the outside of a block construction foundation?), allowing water to enter and weaken the foundation. Block construction is an inexpensive method of building basements, but it also comes with its own set of problems that can lead to a flooded basement in Omaha.
Poured Concrete Resists Water Damage
This kind of construction involves pouring concrete into forms which create the walls of the basement. This method eliminates the joints and seams of block construction and leaves the finished walls very fire and water resistant, but it’s also considerably more expensive to build this way. Once again, poured concrete construction has positive and negative aspects that have to be weighed against the risk of future water damage to determine whether it’s necessary to build this way or not.
If you have a poured concrete basement, that doesn’t mean that your house is impervious to water damage. If your slab or foundation shifts, or if a tree root decides to burrow into your wall in search of water, you can still end up with cracks in your basement walls. Our water damage restoration experts here at Restoration Now! Omaha believe that it’s important to remain vigilant and watch for signs that a flooded basement could occur.
Contact Restoration Now! Omaha Today at (402) 502-7277
Finding you have a flooded basement when you have concrete floors and walls is bad enough, but what about when your basement is finished? Not only are you risking the structural integrity of your home, but in this instance you’re also fighting against the clock to save your possessions as well! Things like drywall, carpeting, furniture and electronics can be very expensive to replace, so learning to take preventative steps against flooding in a finished basement is especially important.
If you find a potential issue in your home that could lead to a flooded basement in Omaha, give our team of water damage restoration experts at Restoration Now! Omaha a call today at (402) 502-7277. We offer 24/7 emergency water damage restoration services and can diagnose any issue quickly to get your home back to normal as soon as possible!