If you’re looking to build a home that stands the test of time, invest well into your foundation. After all, a poorly done foundation will likely lead to a whole host of other issues within your home, ranging from flooding to various other structural concerns. Fortunately, investing as little as 8% of your building costs into the foundation and foundation alone is something that can have a tremendously positive impact at the end of the day. You might even decide to invest as much as 15% of your home’s total cost in the foundation.
In addition to this, you’ll need to choose the right kind of foundation for your home. After all, not all homes will be able to use a basement or crawlspace foundation, two of the most popular types of foundation out there. But because of issues with soil in many parts of the country, including issues with erosion, these types of foundation can all too easily lead to issues with the home – and with the surrounding ground, even. Fortunately, slab foundations are also widely utilized, with slab foundations making up a large part of foundations used for homes throughout the country, particularly in places such as Florida where there are issues with soil such as those mentioned above.
But basement foundations are still widely able to be utilized in many other parts of this country – and happily so. After all, the typical basement space can be used for so many different purposes. For one thing, basements can provide additional storage in homes that are lacking it. They can even provide additional living space! This is something that many people will benefit from, as the typical basement can be transformed into everything from a game room to a movie theater to even an extra bedroom or extra full apartment that can be rented out for a boost of additional income.
Basements, however, are quite prone to flooding, even when they are particularly well made. After all, the data does not lie on this fact, showing that more than 95% of all basements will experience flooding at some point in time – even if it is a relatively small amount of flooding. Unfortunately, this means that more than 35% of all home owners (around 37% of them, to be just a little bit more exact) have experience some level of loss of possessions due to flooding, basement flooding in particular. In just the span of one single day, after all, it has been found that around 14,000 people will experience some kind of crisis in relation to water and flooding.
But flooding does not have to be the destiny of the home with a basement. Fortunately, there are a number of steps that can be taken to fight back against it, to prevent it from ever happening in the first place. For one thing, interior waterproofing services that provide basement waterproofing can mitigate the risk of flooding, especially serious flooding, immensely. Interior waterproofing, as a matter of fact, can even have a return on investment that is as high as 30%. Interior waterproofing can help to prevent any flood damage that does occur as well, something that only further serves to make interior waterproofing services more than worth their cost – and a good idea for every basement owner out there.
But investing in interior waterproofing is certainly not the only thing that you can do to reduce your risk of ever needing a home foundation repair service. In addition to having interior waterproofing conducted within your home, simple lifestyle choices can also make a difference. For instance, being thoughtful about your gardening is something that can actually go a long way. In fact, every home owner with a foundation to care for should ensure that each and every one of their plants is planted at least two feet away from the foundation – and not too deeply, for that matter, as this will be helpful for avoiding issues with roots.
All in all, everything from interior waterproofing to placing your gutters ten feet from the foundation will help to keep your foundation as safe as possible.
