Your property's basement can be influenced by water in a number of ways, and negligence can lead to serious consequences. This is especially true if you live here in Charlotte, where our unique weather patterns—heavy rains and intense storms—can put your house at risk.
So what can you do to keep the water out of your basement? First and foremost, you want to make sure the structure of the basement itself is sound. That means not just taking measures to ensure the walls are straight and strong, but also making sure there aren't any cracks in the wall or the floor, and if there are, that you've sealed them. If you've gone over that part of the basement with a fine-toothed comb and can't find any cracks, the basement is still at risk, because what about the ground under and around it?
Protecting your basement from water damage requires a fundamentally sound understanding of how water flows around your home. Many Charlotte homeowners don't grasp what a big role landscaping and gutter systems play in basement security. But they do—especially landscaping. Dirt is not a static entity. It wears away and builds up, sometimes revealing a former "mountain" where, to the untrained eye, there appeared to be a level lot. Your lot may well have a landscape that tends toward that kind of transformation. A lot like that is an invitation to water to come loll around your foundation and have an unsecured upstairs half of your house be a whole lot wetter than it ought to be. High, then low, then high, then low again. That's what water sees when it looks at your house from any direction.
In addition to structural safeguards, the basement's water defense system requires regular maintenance. This means you need to check the walls and floors of your basement on a routine basis for any signs of moisture, mold, or mildew. If you find any, it is imperative that you address these issues immediately and thoroughly. This is not a basement problem; this is a home problem because mold and mildew affect the air quality throughout your house. Basement humidity can be pretty high, particularly just after you have done some repair work and it is still curing. In these times, and at others when you just know your basement is going to be humid, using a dehumidifier can help a lot. It might also be useful to know that staying on top of the weather forecast can help you prepare for any cataclysmic rainfall that might threaten your home's integrity. Finally, calling in the pros every once in a while to inspect your basement will help in two ways: They can report any irregularities they find, and they can give you a peace of mind that your basement is intact.