Floodproofing Your Property

Floodproofing Your Property 

Owning a home or commercial property represents a serious investment, and it’s vital for property owners to protect their assets from the risk of flooding. Flooding can lead to structural damage, loss of personal belongings and health hazards like mold and mildew growth. Knowing how to prevent flood damage and when you need to call for help can help you protect your home or property from serious, long-lasting damages.

Evaluate Your Risk

To fully understand how to floodproof your home and protect it from damages, you first need to know your property’s and community’s flood risk. You can talk to neighbors about flood patterns and history or even ask city officials and planners for history and risk designation. Knowing your flood risk can help you determine what flood prevention measures to take and which flood insurance policies to purchase.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) also categorizes areas on their flood risk. You can quickly determine your flood risk by noting which color the site uses for your area:

  • Orange: Homes within a yellow zone have a very low chance of experiencing frequent floods. According to FEMA, communities in orange zones run the risk of having one flood in 500 years. Because homes in this zone have the lowest risk of severe floods, they can often purchase flood insurance at cheaper rates.
  • Blue: While buildings in blue zones are at greater risk of flooding than those in orange zones, that risk is reasonably low. FEMA estimates that these communities will experience one significant flood every 100 years. However, like those in orange zones, homeowners in blue areas should still take caution and prepare against potential floods.
  • Blue and red stripes: If your home is in this zone, you will experience regular flooding. Communities in this area often live alongside rivers or within a waterway’s natural floodplain.
  • Yellow: If you are in a yellow zone, FEMA doesn’t have enough information to determine your community’s flood risk. In this case, you will benefit most by talking to neighbors and city planners about your area’s history with floods.

While the FEMA categories can help you determine your home’s overall flood risk, you can also get a fair idea simply by assessing your surroundings. Proximity to bodies of water like rivers, creeks and ponds can increase your risk of floods during heavy rains. Areas that get heavy snow can pose flood risks for homeowners, as melting snow can seep into your home. Properties located at the bottom of hills or slopes may also experience flooding as water drains down and pools around the foundation.

Flood Insurance

Flood insurance is a great way to protect your home from flood damages. However, most homeowner insurance plans don’t include it in their policies. Homeowners can purchase separate flood insurance from federal organizations like FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) or private insurance providers.

Flood insurance is a necessary service for homeowners, even those who live in blue or orange zones. Flooding is unpredictable and can be a result of anything from natural disasters to leaky pipes. FEMA estimates that even just one inch of water can lead to over $25,000 in damages, and approximately 25% of flood insurance claims come from lower-risk areas. Further, many mortgage loaners require homeowners to provide proof of flood insurance.

Flood Insurance

Investing in flood insurance means knowing that you will be able to cover the costs of structural damages and replace damaged furniture and belongings. Because different areas require different levels of coverage, you can find alternative programs to help meet your needs, including:

  • Excessive flood insurance: This insurance plan provides extra coverage against flood damages and costs, benefiting people who live in higher-risk areas.
  • Preferred risk policies: If you live in an area with lower risks, a preferred risk policy can provide you with lower premiums while still helping to cover the cost of any damages.

Regardless of where you live and your home’s flood risk, it is vital to invest in some level of flood insurance to help protect your home.

Prepare Your House to Protect From Flooding 

Prepare Your House to Protect From Flooding

Whatever your area’s flood risk level, you can take steps to protect your home from flood damage. Some methods require investing in equipment to help clear water from your property, while others can be as simple as regular yard work. When determining a flood prevention regimen, consider your home’s risks and apply what will help keep your home and family safe.

1. Clear Waterways Regularly

One simple way to help protect your home from flood damage is to check and clear any waterways on your property regularly. Waterways are any places that carry water away from your home, including gutters, downspouts, drainage ditches and storm drains. When these features become clogged with debris, they can cause areas on your property to flood more easily, increasing your risk of damage.

To help prevent debris buildup, clean your waterways regularly to ensure water can flow through with little resistance or blockage. Check for blocks caused by fallen leaves or sticks and clear them regularly. You can do this yourself or hire a service to help protect your home.

2. Consider Alternative Landscaping

Low areas or sloping hills may cause water to pool and seep through your foundation, posing a flood risk during heavy rains or hurricanes. In addition to manmade waterways, your property’s landscape and natural features can help pull water away from your home and protect you from flood damages.
During gentle or regular rainstorms, you can judge how well your landscape protects your home by looking for areas with pooling water. After you find these locations, you have some options for how to better drain water away from your home:

  • Elevate your home with landscaping: One way to prepare your home for heavy rains and protect your home’s lower levels from damage is to change your property’s elevation to encourage proper draining. You can fill in lower zones to prevent pooling water or build the site up around your home, so water flows down and away from it.
  • Add more greenery: If you prefer to maintain your current elevation, you can still increase your drainage with the materials surrounding your home. Like concrete or cement, certain soil types repel rather than absorb water, leading to excess runoff in heavy rains. Instead, try adding plants that thrive in wet conditions to combat areas where water pools.

By landscaping and changing the area around your home, you invest in better flood prevention tactics.

3. Seal Your Home’s Foundation and Windows

When water pools around your foundation, it can soak into it and slip in through cracks, leaving you at risk for flooding. However, you can decrease this risk by sealing and caulking your foundation and basement walls, floors and windows.

Sealing and caulking your windows can help when waters rise over the glass. You can help protect your home by minimizing access points through which water can enter. If you live somewhere with a higher risk of floods or where floodwaters rise higher, it’s best to also seal the doors and windows on the first floor of your home.

4. Elevate Equipment and Electrical Wiring

When protecting your home from floods, you will need to safeguard appliances as well as your home’s structure and your personal belongings. FEMA recommends that homeowners raise essential appliances like outdoor air conditioning units and heat pumps and electrical systems — including outlets, switches, service panels, and internal wiring — at least one foot above the standard flood risk level.

With this preventative measure, you can ensure the protection of your various appliances during floods. You may save yourself from spending time and money to replace essential features of your home after heavy rainstorms or hurricanes. You can further protect your outdoor appliances by anchoring them to the ground to help prevent them from moving in strong flood currents.

5. Install a Sump Pump

Sump pumps are underground pumps that use pipes to move groundwater away from your home. If you are considering how to protect your house from flooding, a sump pump can help assist with the primary goal of floodproofing — moving water away from your property.
When adding a sump pump, ensure it is properly installed and in good working condition. Additionally, you will want to consider its power source. Since floods often cause power outages, an electric-powered sump pump may find itself without power during a flood. Instead, consider investing in a battery-powered pump or generator so your pump will continue running in all conditions.

Take Preventative Steps When Flooding Starts

If your home begins to flood, it is crucial to know how to prevent as much damage as possible. The best way to know when to begin preventative measures is to invest in a flood alert system, which will sound alarms when sensors notice high water levels. With a flood alert system, you can start taking preventative measures sooner. While it can be a challenge to stop flooding once it starts, you can take action to help decrease your damages and costs afterward.

Take Preventative Steps When Flooding Starts 

1. Turn Off Electricity

Water can cause severe damage to electrical appliances and systems, and electrically charged water poses different dangers to anyone who makes contact with it. When flooding starts, shut off your electricity immediately. You can access the breaker panel to cut off electricity only to areas where it’s flooding, like the basement or first floor of your home, or you can shut everything down and protect your entire home.

While appliances may still sustain water damage, you can help protect yourself from additional risks that accompany flooding and rising water levels in your home.

2. Move Valuable Items and Furniture Upstairs

While many flood insurance policies will replace the value of damaged items, older or personal items often have value beyond their monetary cost. When flooding starts, you can help protect your belongings by moving them to your home’s upper levels, where they can be safe from water damage.

Wood furniture and fabric are especially likely to develop mold and mildew due to sitting in water. You can protect your family from mold exposure by moving furniture upstairs and rolling up any removable carpets to store them elsewhere once flooding begins.

Paper documents often contain valuable personal information that can be challenging to replace. Store important papers on the upper levels of your home or in watertight containers, or keep them in one space for quick removal after flooding begins.

3. Start Pumps and Open Vents

Many people have protective measures already in place, so it’s time to put those features into practice when flooding starts. When you notice it is beginning to flood, initiate sump pumps to help pull water away from your home and make room for water to soak into the ground. If you have flood vents to help water drain from difficult places like crawlspaces or areas with concrete and asphalt, open them to prevent flooding in those areas.

You can invest in many other tools to help you prevent flood damage. Many people in higher-risk areas buy sandbags to place against doors, which can help keep water from seeping into entry points. You can also get covers for your windows to keep water from entering any basement or lower-level windows.

When to Call for Help With Basement Flooding

Flooding can take on many different forms in your home. Sometimes it means a couple of inches of leaking water that you can wipe up with a towel before calling a plumber to look at your pipes. Other times, flooding can result in a foot of standing water in your basement. In cases where the flooding is too extensive to handle easily on your own, it is best to call a professional.

Calling a professional as soon as possible is the best way to quickly remove water from your home. Professionals will have the necessary tools to efficiently and safely remove the water and reduce the risk of further damages like mold growth. Many professionals have specialized tools to help remediate water damage, such as high-powered fans to help dry waterlogged areas.

Call Rhode Island Restoration Emergency Water Extraction and Flood Restoration Services

When your home begins to flood, you have many preventative measures to help protect it. Call your local water extraction team when it’s time to deal with the aftermath. Rhode Island Restoration has advanced water extraction tools to clear the water out of your home.

At Rhode Island Restoration, we offer 24/7 emergency services to get your home cleared and dry as soon as possible and reduce the risk of serious damages from prolonged water exposure. We also partner with Performance Adjusting, a public adjusting firm, to assist you with the flood insurance claims process. Performance Adjusting will help you receive the compensation you need to restore your home, while Rhode Island Restoration provides services from initial repairs to final mitigation projects.

Contact RI Restoration today to learn more about our services and benefits. Call us at (401)-834-3473 to receive a free quote and consultation for your flood damage repairs or for immediate emergency assistance.

Call Rhode Island Restoration Emergency Water Extraction and Flood Restoration Services 

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