With the rain the way it has been the last week, pretty much non-stop, I thought that this would be a good time to talk about proper water drainage at your home.  Water in your home  can be very destructive.  Not only can it cause you to have to get new carpet or hire a professional carpet cleaner, it can also get behind your walls and start to cause mold and mildew.  Always be aware of the potential of water in your home, especially in Minnesota with water in your basement.

Water has to come from somewhere to get into your home.  Water will take the path of least resistance, and the more water that runs through that path, the path will get bigger and bigger and more obvious.  The key is to catch the problem before it starts, or before it gets to be a very big problem.

Many people think it takes an expert to find out where the problem is.  They see water and they think it is a huge expensive fix.  One of the big problems is clogged gutters.  The water from your roof can’t take its intended path through the gutters, so wherever the clog is the water usually falls off the roof there.  The problem with that is it falls to a place on the ground that is not intended for a high volume of pounding water.  Make sure all of your gutters are clean.  This will make a big difference.  It will bring the water away from your home, instead of in your home.

When walking around your home, look for low spots around the base of the home.  If you have landscaping, you might need to pull back the rocks or woodchips.  You want to make sure that there is a slop of dirt away from your home.  A lot of times the dirt around the home is the first to settle.  If water gets in around the base of the home, it will just keep eating away at the dirt, until it will eventually make its way into the home.  It dosn’t take much dirt, and it dosn’t have to be that big of a slope, it just has to be there.   This might not seem like it would make that big of a difference, but trust me it does.  Build up around your home, and then use the rocks or woodchips to cover up the slope.  No one will ever notice.