We’ve had a couple big snow storms in the past month in the Northeast. What should homeowners be doing to prepare their homes for the inevitable melt that will occur in the coming weeks? Adam explains.
Narrator: It's time once again for the crack man podcast. Hosted by A1 Foundation crack repair. I'm Darren Kincaid and I'm here with the crack daddy himself, Adam Tracy. Adam has 20 years of experience in the construction industry and as a civil engineer is A1 Foundation's resident engineer on staff, solving a plethora of unique foundation problems every day. This podcast provides expert basement waterproofing, concrete repair, and preventative maintenance tips for homeowners and businesses. A1 Foundation's valuable insight will help prevent the disaster of a flooded basement, health problems from water infiltration, and protect your biggest investment, your home. The topic of today's podcast: How large snow piles around your house can impact your foundation and basement.
Narrator: So Adam, we've had a couple big snowstorms in the past few weeks. What should homeowners be doing to prepare their homes for the inevitable melt that will occur in the coming weeks?
Adam: Yeah, this is the year where old man winter decided to return. For the last couple years, we've had pretty meager-looking snowfall and really just cold temperatures without any sort of snow pack around people's houses. So we kind of forget what this can do. It's water — it's just frozen and it's sitting there, right? And it can flood basements.
So we get a lot of these questions as to, you know, “Is there anything I can do preventatively to help keep the snow pack away?” And the first thing that I always recommend to people is making sure that the piles of snow do not go up to the siding of the house.
A lot of times, if you don't have a very tall outside foundation — where you should have at least 12 inches, if not more — and you have less than that, this snowfall (we had almost 2 feet) means that snow pack can be up and over the top sill plate of the house. As that melts, it can come over the top of the foundation wall. There's no foundation waterproofing that you can do to stop that from happening.
It’s really purely preventative — keeping the water running away from the foundation and not going underneath the siding and exposing flaws in the connection point between the concrete, stone, or block foundation and the siding and wood structure. So the first thing is to make sure that there is at least some clearance between the siding and the actual snow pack.
The other thing to do — and it’ll depend on how much work you want to put into it — is clearing a path around the perimeter of the house. Having the water just drain right down and against the foundation is going to cause issues when we do get snow melt. And if we get rain on top of the snow, it’ll melt even faster. If you have no space between the snow and the foundation, you’re going to get flooded.
So really small preventative things like this can go a long way in helping prevent basement floods.
The other thing to do is making sure that your gutters and downspouts are all cleared and that there’s enough runoff room. A lot of times when we have this much snow, the downspouts are buried underneath it. They can get packed with snow and ice and not actually drain. In that situation, water backs up. It can cause ice dams and other issues. But the big thing is that the water won’t flow away from the house.
After you're tired of shoveling the driveway, the stairs, and the back deck, you really do need to take care of some of these water issues as well. Even though we’ve kind of forgotten that snow can cause flooding events, the reality is that when this all melts, it’s all going to soak into the ground — and it’s going to find its way into the basement.
To help prevent that, just spend a little extra time around the perimeter of the house taking care of these areas. If you have questions or concerns about your foundation, these are things we can help guide you through. It might even become a spring grading project. But the big thing is making sure you pull the snow away and take care of all the areas where water can flow in.
Narrator: Thanks, Adam, for sharing your wisdom on what homeowners can be doing to prepare their homes for snow melt.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem and think you need a professional or if you'd like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visit a1foundationcrackrepair.com or call Adam at (866) 929-3171. Or you can email Adam at info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.