2 Tips to Keeping Your Basement Flood Free

Most people are looking for tips that will keep their basement free from floods and standing water that leads to serious water damage. Isn’t this right?

Of course this is right because people do not want to take on the cost that this water damage tends to lead to. So, to help you prevent this from happening in your life. I want to give you two quick tips that can litterally save you thousands of dollars in damage.

Flood Free Tips

1) Clean your Sump Pump

This might seem obvious to you and it is to me now. When I first moved into my home, I had no idea that you had to make sure your sump pump was clean or it will not work properly and you will have standing water in your basement from flooding in no time.

Therefore, I am here urging you to pull your sump pump out the well at least twice a year and clean it out. Particularly, you are going to want to clean the base of the sump pump where the water moves up into the machine. This will allow a free flow of water through the machine and out of your plumbing system.

Trust me that you want to make sure this is done because if it is not, your sump pump will run, yet no water will flow out of your basement leaving the standing water to further damage your personal property and the integrity of your foundation.

2) Make sure your GFI switches have been clicked

Newer housing regulations require that GFI electrical switches be placed around any outlets that have water near them. The sump pumps are placed in areas that are designed to capture water and then pump it out of your home. Therefore, a GFI switch will not be too far away.

Here is how they work. If electrical equipment runs too long or is over worked in an GFI socket, it will pop the switch and turn the outlet off. This will cause anything plugged into this outlet to not work cause the electricity has been disconnected.

I am aware of this because my sump pump was working too hard one day from a great rain in our area and the switch was disconnected. This turned my sump pump off and caused my basement to flood.

I had no idea about this GFI switch, so I thought that my sump pump had broken, went out bought a new one, and had a contract put it in. This cost me an arm and a leg. So when the new sump pump had been installed, plugged in it still didn’t work. I was bummed.

The whole time it wasn’t the sump pump, but the GFI switch had been triggered, so I wasted all that money cause I was not aware of this. Nevertheless, the water was pumped from my basement and I was happen.

The moral of this story is to know that you must clean your sump pump from time to time and that the GFI switch can be triggered to stop your sump pump from working and pumping the water out of your basement.

Happy homeowning!

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