It's fall, and the leaves will soon be turning all sorts of colors, falling into our yards and streets.
They also fall in to your gutters, which can present unforeseen consequences for your basement or crawl space. Clogged gutters are one of the most preventable causes of basement seepage, and happen all too often, especially in these heavily wooded Michigan neighborhoods.
Fall basement waterproofing preparedness starts with making sure those gutters are cleaned of all leaves and debris, so they can flow easily and direct water away from your foundation.
When you allow leaves to clog up your gutter, a couple of things happen. First, water is allowed to flow over the sides of the gutters like a waterfall. This overflow of large volumes of water creates a powerful splashing very close to your foundation, which can more easily make its way into old window sills, above-grade foundation cracks, as well as the sill plate––the space between the top of your foundation walls and the upper floors of your home.
As the rain continues, and the gutters continue to pour out water, the soil becomes more rapidly saturated. At it's most critical point, the water table (body of natural ground water pushing upward) and the surface water (rain absorbing into the ground) converge, and begin to push against your foundation, working its way into hairline cracks and up through your floors.
The more you can do to route water away from your foundation, the better off your home will be during heavy rainstorms––so keep those gutters clean!
