How Flooding Affects Wilmington Basements

7/21/2022 (Permalink)

SERVPRO can remediate your water damaged basement quickly.

Threats of Natural Flooding Against Wilmington Foundations 

When torrential downpours and prolonged soaking rains raise water levels in creeks and streams surrounding your Wilmington home, the entire neighborhood could become susceptible to flood damage. While you can take preventative measures to reduce the penetration of this rising water into the main level of your home, it can be more challenging to keep floodwater out of your basement when vulnerabilities already exist. There are many threats to your property with natural flooding, significantly when this disaster impacts the walls of your foundation.  

Many homes in the area have aging basements or cellar areas that can lead to flood damage in Wilmington. As challenging as these circumstances might be when you have a moderate amount of water to remove and dry up, natural flooding presents multiple risks beyond standing water. Addressing these concerns is the responsibility of our SERVPRO water restoration technicians and our licensed (#1992104829) general contractors. 

Hydrostatic Pressure 

This force can collapse basement walls even without flooding, but a softening of the soil around the house after flood damage can make the home more susceptible to this structural failure. Under these compromised conditions, the pressure against the blockwork can become too substantial to maintain. Our SERVPRO team must consider this possibility to gauge the rate of water removal from the basement.  

Contamination  

Many of the surfaces in the basement are block or concrete, and they do not require removal and replacement, even with immediate exposure to contaminants. Instead, these surfaces can get cleaned with our line of potent products such as foam cleaning, agitative cleaning methods, and other strategies designed to disinfect, inhibit mold growth, and even reduce any lingering odors.  

Flooding can present many potential hazards to the lowest levels of your home. Still, our SERVPRO of Brandywine / Wilmington team has the experience and the equipment to help. We can help your home through nearly every phase of recovery after a flood loss incident. Contact us today at (302) 762-8080.