Flooding can be caused by almost anything. Your children could leave your bathtub or sink water on, storms, hurricanes, and natural disasters. All of these variables can leave you with a flooded house and you frantically not knowing what to do. Depending on the cause or how much money it will take to fix it, your insurance might take care of you. That’s why it’s a good idea for you to take the proper steps to prevent a flood from even happening. If you’ve been meaning to learn how to prevent flood damage, you’re in the right place at the right time for a reason!

You have probably always heard that you need a house that’s up on a hill, not lower than everyone else. That may protect you a little but even houses on hills need to be flood proofed. Water will affect your home from the base up, so you need to think in terms of staying above the water. When it rains I bet you can already tell what way the water flows around your house. You need to make sure to help that water be able to flow right past your house and have a great path to flow so that no water just builds up and sits around your house. It’s good to know what path the water takes when it rains. There are several options to helping to prevent flood damage in your home but I’ll give you five very important measures you can take.

Make sure your downspouts are pointed away from your house

This is a very important preventative. If your gutter runoff is pointed towards your house or not in a specific direction, water can build up and cause leaks that make its way into your home. Having the gutter pointed away from your home is a great way for the water to get as far away as possible from your home.

Raise your electrical outlets and switches

Having your electrical outlets and switches at least a foot above flood level protects you and your home from running into major electrical damage if it were to flood majorly into your home. 

Apply proper sealants to your home

Back to what I was saying when I brought up water leaking into your home. Another great step to preventing water from doing that is applying a sealant to basically your whole house. You walls, foundation, windows and doorways can be covered with sealant to help prevent flood water from making its way into your home.

Raise your home

This is a preventative that is expensive but will help you a lot in the long run. Raising your home whether it be you using piers or stilts, also raises your home above its flood level.  

Install sump pumps

These are pumps that keep water from sitting around your home. Sump pumps remove water that accumulates, usually in a basement. These are very handy because they can come with a battery backup in case of power outages.

It is always better to be prepared then to not know what to do when a natural disaster comes through or other situations arise. Having a game plan ready for action in case of something happening is the best thing you can do for you and your home. FloStop Restoration offers 24/7 emergency water services and is always one call away!