If you experience basement flooding in your home on a frequent basis, then your landscaping may be one of the reasons why. When water accumulates outside of your home, there are several ways that it can travel toward the building and leak into your basement. Water is more likely to leak into your home if the grading of the yard slopes towards the home and if there are few obstacles in the yard blocking its path. This can lead to serious water damage that jeopardizes your home’s foundation. When your home has water damage, there can be costly repairs to make and pay for in addition to potential mold growth. Fortunately, there are things you can do that concern your landscaping and mulching to prevent a flooded basement.

Improve Your Landscape’s Grading

When your landscape runs toward the structure of your home, there is a greater chance for water to leak into the basement. As such, tree care experts suggest that you make sure your home landscape slopes away from the building to prevent water from moving towards the foundation. Improving your landscape grading will limit the potential for water to enter your basement or cause foundation damage.

There are several ways you can fix the grading of the landscape around your home. One way is to create a dry creek around your house, and then fill it with gravel and river rocks. This creek will direct water away from your home while keeping the landscape dry. You can also pack more soil onto the ground around the home’s foundation to make it higher than the rest of the yard.

Examine Your Downspouts

Proper positioning of your down spouts can help prevent flooding in your basement by directing water away from your house

If you find that water leaks into your basement when it rains, then one cause of this may be your downspouts not directing water far enough away from your home. Downspouts that are clogged with dirt and other debris can also cause water to overflow and go into your basement.

To solve this problem, make sure that your downspouts direct water at least 20 feet away from your home. If you find that they don’t, then you should consider getting the downspouts extended. This would ensure that the water gets drained far enough away from your home, reducing the risk of water from the downspouts leaking into the basement. Additionally, check your gutters every season and remove any debris that has clogged them so that water can pass through. This Autumn, after most leaves have fallen, is a perfect opportunity to clean and make sure there are not leaves and twigs clogging your gutters and downspouts.

Include Grass and Native Plants in Landscaping

A natural way to prevent erosion is to plant grass and native indigenous plants in your yard. Grass, in particular, acts as a good barrier for excessive rain. These plants will let rainwater drain more easily, and their familiarity with the climate and landscape makes it so that they’re able to prevent excess water from flowing toward your home. Instead, the water will be absorbed by the grass, native plants, and the soil.

Use Mulch Correctly

Moisture that gets trapped in mulch can affect your home if the mulch is up against the foundation. When this happens, it can lead to rotting that causes your home’s siding to deteriorate. Additionally, such deterioration makes your home more susceptible to a leaky basement and, as a result, water damage. To prevent this from occurring, make sure there are at least 4 to 6 inches between the mulch and your home’s foundation. You should never lay patches of mulch that make contact with the foundation of your home.

Improper landscaping is one potential cause of frequent flooding in your basement. If your basement floods often, you can help prevent such situations from occurring by following these preventative landscaping tips. However, if you do find that your basement has become flooded, then you should contact a professional water damage restoration company.

It’s crucial that you seek help immediately for water damage because the damage will worsen the longer you wait. In fact, mold growth can begin within 24 hours of the damage, giving you potential health concerns to worry about in addition to the property damage. A water damage restoration professional will assess the damage, determine a restoration plan, address the water damage, and take care of any mold growth.

About Vince Sandri

Vince Sandri is a content writer and blogger with more than 12 years of experience. His expertise is in creating content related to disaster restoration, including information about preventing and reacting to natural disasters like flooding, water damage, fire and smoke damage, mold growth, storm damage and more.
Vince has been the main contributor to RestorationMasterFinder.com since 2014. Over that time, he has written numerous service pages and blogs for disaster restoration providers featured on RestorationMasterFinder.com. Vince has done extensive research and covered a wide range of topics relating to disaster restoration to help homeowners, business owners, and property managers better protect their property. He understands the problems that disasters like flooding, fire, smoke, and mold can cause as well as the best ways to respond to these issues to limit the damage.
Vince completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Aurora University and his master’s degree at DePaul University. He has been writing SEO website pages, blogs, and press releases since 2012. Vince is also a musician and can be seen playing in the Chicago, IL area.