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How to Prevent Basement Flooding While on
Vacation
Tips for Preventing a Flooded Basement While
Vacationing from Your Home
By: Mark J. Donovan
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The last thing you want to come home
to after a vacation is a flooded basement. Unfortunately this situation happens
more often than you think. A flooded basement can occur for a variety of
reasons. A backed up sewer line, a failed pressure and temperature valve on the
hot water heater, a broken supply pipe, or water seeping through a crack in your
foundation wall are all common sources for flooded basements. If any of these
situations occur and your basement floods, tremendous water damage can result,
particularly if you do not react quickly to eliminate the water.
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Besides the water damage, mold and
mildew growth can quickly occur. In just a couple of days you could begin to see
signs of hazardous mold growth. You can, however, prevent a flood in your
basement by taking some proactive steps before leaving your home.
Shut off the Well
Pump
When we, for example, leave our
vacation home we always shut off the switch to the well pump. By doing so, we
prevent the basement and home from being flooded by cutting off the water
source. As a result, in the event of a broken supply line or a toilet flapper
that fails to seal properly no serious damage will occur to the home.
Shut off the Hot Water heater
Again, when we leave our vacation
home we always shut off the hot water heater. We do this for two reasons. In the
event the temperature and pressure relief valve associated with the water
heater, or the water heater itself fails, we can prevent a flooded basement.
Second, we can prevent wasting energy reheating water over and over again that
we are not using. One time, while we were at the home, the temperature and
pressure relief valve (TPV) on the hot water heater went. The result was hot
water spewing out of the pipe connected to the TPV.
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Due to the fact that the well was
turned on, water flowed continuously out of this pipe. Fortunately I caught the
situation before the basement flooded significantly. Ever since that occurrence,
I’ve always made sure to shut off both the well pump and hot water heater before
leaving the home for any extended period of time.
Keep the Heat On
at a Low Level
Particularly if you have hot water
heating, it is imperative to keep the heat at no less than 50 degrees Fahrenheit
in the home during the winter months.
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This way if you lose power at your
home while you’re on a winter vacation, there’s margin for the house to stay
above freezing until the power is restored to the home. If you leave the heat
off, or at too low of a temperature setting and you lose power, you may end up
with frozen and broken water pipes.
In addition, you may want to install a water sensor alarm system in the basement
so that in the event basement flooding does occur it can call you immediately to
let you know about the alarm condition.
Preventing Flooded
Basement from Flood Drains
If your home has a flood drain, there
is the risk of water pushing up through the drain and flooding your basement. To
prevent this type of situation from occurring you can install a standpipe. A
standpipe is a pipe that is installed into the floor drain. It has a wide
diameter and can be either placed into the basement drain or screwed into it. If
below grade water attempts to enter the basement via the flood drain, the water
will move up into the standpipe but won’t overflow the height of it.
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Photo by Mark Donovan |
Consequently the water will not spill over the drain and onto the basement
floor. The standpipe can be inserted or screwed in only when there is a risk of
flooding, e.g. during the spring season or when heavy rains are expected.
As an alternative to the standpipe a plug can also be installed into the flood
drain to hold back water from pushing up into the basement. With the plugs, they
are meant to release at a certain pressure point to ensure the basement floor
slab does not crack from all of the water pressure underneath it. A check valve
can also be inserted into the flood drain to prevent water from back flowing
from the sewer drain system into your basement.
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