It’s been a warm winter and now we’re just into Spring, which brings a lot of rain. How could that affect a homeowner’s basement?
Narrator: It’s time once again for the “Crack Man Podcast” hosted by A1 Foundation Crack Repair. I’m Darren Kincaid here with the Crack Daddy himself, Adam Tracy. Adam and The Crack Man Rich have over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry. Rich as over 25 years as the president and founder of A1 Foundation Crack Repair. This podcast provides expert basement waterproofing, concrete repair, and preventative maintenance tips for homeowners and businesses. A1 Foundation’s valuable insight will help avert a disastrous flood within the basement, health problems associated with water infiltration, and protect your biggest investment….your home. The topic of today’s podcast: Spring rains are coming. How will that affect my basement?
Narrator: So, Adam, it's been a warm winter and now we're on the precipice of spring which brings a lot of rain. How could that affect a homeowner's basement?
Adam: Yeah. This has been a very strange winter. It's been a very mild winter with very little snow here in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and Southern New Hampshire. So we're kind of dealing with a unique situation where we had a bad drought in the summer last year and then a fairly wet winter but no snow. So we're getting a lot of calls that are kind of atypical for this time of the year. Usually we see it more in the spring, but it kind of reminds homeowners of what's to come. This time of year, like any time in the winter time, is typically drier air, and colder, obviously, so we have less worries about mold growth and issues around that. But as we have issues coming with water in the foundations, that is an immediate concern. So spring rains are going to be coming, and with the increased temperature, we have to be extra cautious and concerned about how that can affect mold and mildew and other biological growth in foundations. Often times we'll get a call from a customer. In fact, we had one just yesterday over in Springfield MA, and they had a little bit of seepage coming through the wall that they were generally just kind of mildly concerned about, just kind of trying to figure out what kind of options they had there, and come to find out they had kids in the house who had respiratory issues. And so the immediate concern for me and for that family was that, well, even though you have very minor water infiltrations in the home, you're not flooding the basement, there's no huge standing puddles anytime it rains, but with big rains and melts of snow, you're getting water seepage onto the walls, it is starting to stain the walls, and you're starting to get some sort of growth on the walls as well. Mold growth and other biological growth can only take about 24 hours to get going.
If you do have standing water, if you do have water infiltration into a basement, it's a very fast process, and then once it starts, it's slow to halt. In the wintertime, it's harder to get going because the air mass is so dry. But as the spring comes on us and we get warmer air, the humidity tends to increase, and we have kind of a positive feedback cycle, if you will, where the warmer air with more moisture plus rain plus seepage allows microbiological growth to happen real fast. So obviously, you know, for many reasons why you'd want to repair water from coming into your home, the spring rains and the increased temperatures really kick off the mold growth season and can be a big issue, a very expensive issue, and a health hazard issue as you move into the spring and summer months if you do have water coming in your basement, even if it is very minor.
In this case, we wanted to get out there to fix that so that they didn't have any sort of breathing issues in their family. But, you know, you want to try to mitigate as many as possible and this is an easy one to fix. So, you know, as the spring starts to come, you know, keep an eye on areas that are getting moist or damp because that is typically the first sign of bigger issues to come.
Narrator: Well, thanks Adam for explaining how spring rains can affect a basement.
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 Rich at (866) 929-3171. Or you can email Rich at info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.