Leaky Basement: Why You Need to Act
A leaky basement has the potential to give you some serious grief as well as put a severe dent into the value of your home when the time comes for you to sell up. In case you haven’t given it much thought (we think about this kind of thing a lot), here is a list of reasons why you should be proactive in keeping your Toronto home free of a leaky basement.
The Consequences of Having a Leaky Basement in Toronto:
- Flooding: Think of your basement as a bucket that is surrounded by water on all sides but the top. At all times there is a tremendous amount of hydrostatic pressure being applied on your basement wall by that water. If even the tiniest hairline crack appears you can be sure that the water will find it and expand it, which could result in a flooded basement after some extreme weather.
- Damp: Damp is the silent killer of many a household. Countless hours, dollars and feelings of dissatisfaction can be spent on dealing with recurring damp in the home and a leaky basement is one of the most common culprits for persistent damp.
- Mould: This is a one of the most obvious and unappealing results of chronic damp. Not only is it unsightly, it can also permanently damage your property and affect the health of your family.
- Smell: It starts off as a musty smell that may be somewhat tolerable at first, but if left unchecked that smell can turn into the foul odour of full-blown rot, depending on what that moisture and mould finds in your leaky basement.
- Health: Damp, mould and bad smells are all indicative of pathogens floating around in the atmosphere which can seriously affect your health. At the most serious level, respiratory illnesses can be highly contagious and almost impossible to cure. So just don’t go there; fix your leaky basement.
- Fire: Yes, fire. Aside from the risk of electrical shock and damage to your electrical equipment, water seeping through walls that contain electrical wiring and active power outlets is an electrical fire just waiting to happen.
- Damage: Treasured photos, valuable documents, books, records, furniture, electrical equipment; all of these things are at risk of permanent damage in a leaky basement. Some objects may be replaceable, but the hurt feelings may prove to be even tougher to deal with than the leaky basement itself when you consider that the damage to your home in Toronto was entirely preventable.
- Value: In terms of monetary value, homes with chronic problems relating to water ingress are notoriously hard to sell without a swinging discount. Beyond that, think about your property’s value as home to your family; is the long-term quality of life for your family worth it?
Your Toronto home is probably your biggest and most important investment for your family, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us so that we can help you to protect that investment from a leaky basement.