Tag Archives: water damage

Water Damage Due To Hurricanes

Every fall the East coast undoubtedly gets hit by some type of hurricane or tropical storm. This year is no different. The repercussions of Hurricane Ida have included torrential rain, flooding, and wind damage. So basically, preventing water damage is vital. These disturbances negatively impact residential homes, commercial housing, and small and large businesses alike. The state of Virginia is in direct line of many of these storms. This is why it is very important to have your Virginian home waterproofed to prepare for the worse.

Sometimes hurricane season can lead to other dangerous weather patterns as well. These disasters will also bring more water damage from lots of wind and rainfall. They also lead to other severe weather patterns. In fact, The Virginia Department of Emergency Management sent out social media alerts to all of its residents preparing them with tornado warnings as an aftermath of Hurricane Ida. In some parts of Virginia, homes were swept away from landslides, and others destroyed from irreversible flooding.

Waterproofing Your Virginia Home

Preventing water damage in and around your home has never been more important. With the increase of storm damage every year, it is in your best interest to protect your most important investments: your home and your business. Without a healthy home, it is difficult to have a stress-free living space. At Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry, we would like to help you with prevention if possible.

We solve basement water problems in Virginia. Furthermore, our professional team uses the highest quality of waterproofing systems to prevent future issues. Whether you are in need of basement waterproofing, crawlspace solutions, or exterior drainage, we can find solutions. Our interior basement solutions include sump pumps, channel drains, and polyurethane injection remedies. Phone or Contact Us today so we can give you a free estimate.

Preventing Frozen Pipes in VA

Did you have a problem with frozen pipes or broken pipes last winter? Each winter, thousands of homeowners in Virginia lose water service due to frozen and broken pipes and water meters. It’s not too soon to start thinking about how to prevent problems this winter.

Repairing and replacing frozen pipes and water-damaged walls, floors, and items on the floors can be expensive and time-consuming. The homeowner has a further expense by being responsible for paying for water that leaks from a broken pipe. It can cost more than $100 to replace a broken water meter. The following article explains ways of preventing frozen pipes in VA and what to do when a pipe does become frozen.

What can I do now to prevent pipes and meters from freezing?

There are several things you should do before the weather gets below freezing again:

Find the location of your main water shut-off valve. If a pipe freezes or breaks, you’ll know where to shut it off immediately.
Identify which areas of your home are most vulnerable to frozen pipes, including basements, crawl spaces, unheated rooms, and outside walls.
Insulate your pipes and water meter. By wrapping exposed pipes with insulation or electrical heating wires, you will protect your pipes from freezing. If you do it yourself, make sure that you follow the manufacturer’s instructions to avoid a fire hazard.
Eliminate sources of cold air sources near water pipes by repairing broken windows, insulating walls, sealing crawl spaces and preventing drafts near doors.Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry offers services in both crawl space sealing and foundation repair to avoid problems with freezing.
Disconnect hoses from outside faucets and, if possible, shut off outside water valves.
For outside meters, make sure the lid to the meter is closed tightly. If snow falls on top of it, don’t worry because snow acts as a good insulator.

What should I do when it gets below freezing?

When the outside temperature is consistently below freezing, there are a few precautions that you can take to prevent water pipes from breaking.

At night, when it is coldest, turn on a small trickle of water from both your cold and hot water faucets. The cost of the extra water is minimal compared to the cost of repairing a broken pipe. If you don’t want to waste water, collect it in a bowl for feeding pets or watering plants.
Leave open cabinet doors, even just a crack, to expose pipes to the warmer air in the room.

What if I’m going to be gone for more than a few days?

If you plan to leave your home for more than a few days, it is wise to take a few extra precautions.

Don’t turn your thermostat down below 50 degrees. It is important to keep a minimal level of heat inside the house.
Ask a neighbor, friend, or relative to check your home occasionally to make sure the heat is working and pipes aren’t frozen.
Consider purchasing a freeze alarm, which costs less than $100. It will call any specified number if the indoor temperature drops below 45 degrees.

What should I do if my pipes do freeze?

If you do have the misfortune of a frozen pipe, there are certain steps you should take first.

Turn your water off immediately at the shut-off valve. Freezing may have caused the pipes to crack, and thawing them without turning off the water may cause them to leak through undetected cracks.
Apply heat to the frozen pipe by either warming the air around it by raising the room temperature or using a space heater. You can also apply heat directly to the pipe with a hairdryer or hot water. For safety purposes, keep an eye on space heaters and avoid the use of kerosene heaters or open flames.
When the pipes are thawed, turn on the water gradually and check for any cracks or leaks.
If you do have a cracked or broken pipe, your only choice is to a plumber to repair it before you turn the water back on.

These simple measures can assure that you won’t have a problem with frozen pipes or water meters next year. Contact us if you have further questions about how to insulate your crawl space and repair problems with your masonry or foundation wall to avoid frozen pipes.

Virginia saw Flooding from Hurricane Hermine

In September Hurricane Hermine ripped its way through the Carolinas and into Virginia. Along with downed trees and power outages, there was intense coastal flooding. For many home and business owners, this hurricane was devastating. Foundation flooding not only causes awful water damage, but it can ruin your possessions as well. So, what is the best way to recover from a flood?

Contact us here at Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry! We offer a variety of waterproofing and foundation repair services to help fix your flooding issues and prevent them in the future as well. From interior and exterior drainage installation to helical and steel push piers, we have everything you might need. We want to help you make sure your Virginia home or business is safe from water damage and foundation failure. Give us a call today to learn more!

Solutions for Flooding in Virginia

We here at Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry offer a variety of solutions for flooding and other water related problems, including sump pumps, battery backup sump pumps, and interior or exterior drainage installation. These can both help remedy the immediate problem–like a flooded basement–and prevent these problems in the future. Invest in your home’s future and get waterproofing before you need it. Contact us today to learn more about our waterproofing options as well as foundation repair, masonry work, and crawl space repair. We are here to help!

Prepare your Virginia Chimney for Winter

Cleaning and Prepping Virginia Chimney for Winter

If your home has a Virginia chimney it is likely to get most of its use during the winter, and that is why as a homeowner you need to make sure your chimney is clean and safe all year round. Winter is on its way and your home’s heating system, whether it be a furnace or a fireplace, is about to go into overdrive. Your chimney disposes of dangerous byproducts that come from your heating system.

So, before those cold temperatures hit, it is best to make sure that your chimney is in working order. If your chimney is dirty or even blocked, air is not allowed to flow out. In the winter, your house is almost always closed up with all the doors and windows closed. This can leave those deadly pollutants inside your house. We have a list of tips we suggest for preparing your Virginia chimney for the coming winter.

Keep your Virginia Chimney Clean and Safe All Year Round

Have your Chimney Professionally Inspected – Homes with a chimney should have their chimney inspection done once per year. This allows the homeowner to have peace of mind that all the parts of the chimney are working and safe. It also removes the possibility of obstructions inside the chimney from affecting your home. Having a certified professional inspect is best because they met certain guidelines to become certified, so you can be sure of the results.
Take Note of Abnormalities – You live in your home, so you are its best advocate. If you notice strange smells, drafts that you haven’t noticed before, or other out of the ordinary happenings with your chimney, make sure you take note and remember them when you have your chimney inspected.
Keep your Chimney’s Damper Closed When not in Use – Especially in the winter, you are paying to keep your home at a comfortable temperature. If the damper is open, it will allow cool air into your home. This will make your heating system work harder than it should have to in order to keep your home’s temperature constant. You will pay more in energy costs if your damper is open when the chimney is not in use.
Check for Chimney Leaks and Water Damage – Just like a roof, basement, or foundation, a chimney can be affected by water damage. If you notice your chimney is leaking or the bricks are cracking or splitting, make sure to contact a professional contractor to fix the water damage. Keeping your chimney up to date and safe will keep your whole home safer and will save you money.

For more information on how to prepare your Virginia chimney for winter, you can contact us here at Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry. We can have a professional come perform a chimney inspection today! We also offer a variety of other services, including foundation repair, waterproofing, masonry repair, and concrete repair. We provide our customers with FREE estimates, as well. Give us a call today! We want to help make sure you can rest easy all year round knowing your home is safe.

Affects of Water on Your Virginia Home’s Masonry

If you want to prevent problems from occurring with the masonry on your home, such as your chimney or brick walls, you need to be aware of the different problems that water can cause. Rain water, condensation, humidity, and pooling water are all forms of moisture that could spell trouble for your masonry. That is why it is important to take precautionary measure as much as possible and to regularly check over the masonry on your home for signs of water damage. These water sources can cause problems such as:

Look for these issues in the masonry on your Virginia home. If you see signs such as discoloration, hairline cracks in between the mortar and the brick, poorly filled mortar joints, or larger cracks throughout the mortar, you may be dealing with a water issue in your masonry.

Problems like deterioration and corrosion are causes when the constant exposure to water starts to wear on the brick or stone masonry. Eventually, this could make the entire structure less stable. Cracks can be due to a foundation issue or due to deterioration. Whichever is the case, cracks can lead to moisture seeping into the rest of the home. Cracks and also lead to further structural damage, as they contribute to lower structural integrity in the entire area of the masonry. Spalling is the chipping and flaking of bricks. This is a sort of deterioration that happens when the surface of the bricks is exposed to too much moisture. Another issue that can result from water is efflorescence. This is a white-ish calcium buildup on your bricks or masonry that may indicate water exposure and further moisture problems. These kinds of problems occur commonly when water is allowed to pool against the masonry. Rain that has saturated the masonry can also cause water issues, as it takes a few days to dry, and the drying process can be slowed down by plants or algae.

Solutions for Masonry Water Problems in Richmond, VA

If there are cracks in your masonry, the solution may be to invest in foundation repair services from Reliable Waterproofing and Masonry. We offer solutions to close the cracks in your masonry and get your home back to normal. For other masonry water damage issues that you may be dealing with, we can provide masonry repair and basement waterproofing services. We will help you repair damage to get your home looking like new again and fix any recurring water issues to prevent future problems.

Some of the services that we offer for masonry repair are: brick laying and re-pointing, retaining walls, block foundations, and chimneys. If you are in need of basement waterproofing, we offer sump pump systems as well as interior and exterior drainage systems.

Contact a professional from Reliable Waterproofing and Masonry of Virginia today to get your masonry water damage under control and keep further water issues at bay.

The Top 10 Reasons Why Your Basement is Taking on Water Damage

Where Is All That Water Damage Coming From?

Whether your basement is your family’s favorite hang out spot, or just an extra storage space, you sure don’t want water down there. Water damage can destroy your personal belongings, and allow mold and mildew to grow. It is important to be educated on how water is entering your basement in order to protect it from being flooded. Here we will discuss the main entry points of water into your home.

1. Cracks in your basement and crawlspace walls: This can be a serious water damage issue, because simply mending the crack will not solve the entire problem forever. If water pressure is causing cracks in your basement, you need to get rid of the water, not just the crack. The best thing to do would be to install a waterproof drainage system around your home.

2. Poor Drainage: If your house is on a slope, rainwater can rush towards your foundation and right over the top of your foundation wall into your basement. If your gutter downspouts are not directed properly away from your house, or they are too short, rain water from your roof could be directly coming down on your foundation wall, and the pressure will increase chances of leakage.

3. “Honeycombs”: If your concrete walls weren’t mixed properly when they were originally poured, they could have multiple air pockets and cavities that resemble a honeycomb. These air pockets can cause seepage, but fortunately they are a quick and easy fix and just need to be sealed.

4. A Broken Sump Pump: The purpose of a sump pump is to collect the excess water and prevent water damage around your home and eject it away from your foundation. A sump pump could fail because it wasn’t installed properly in the first place. It also might not be working properly if its discharge lines were damaged by harsh weather, or if it was not maintained well. A sump pump will usually come with a backup, but we suggest that you also install a second waterproof system to complement your sump pump system so they can work efficiently together to keep water out of your basement.

5. Old Mortar Joints: Cinder block and brick foundation walls are joined together by mortar: a substance that slowly deteriorates over time and becomes more susceptible to water leakage.

6. Drain Tile Water Damage: Drain tile is the plastic piping that goes around the perimeter of your basement walls. Although these pipes are not particularly prone to disaster, they can still be affected by overgrown tree roots.

7. Clogs in the Sewer Line: Uncontaminated water from your sewer pipes can come up through the sink and floor drains in your basement if there is a clog in your sewer line.

8. Sewer pipe leaks: Small leaks from a sewage pipe can go unnoticed for a long time because pipes usually leak very slowly, and they will usually manifest themselves as ceiling stains and mold.

9. Floor cracks: High water pressure against your home can be caused by heavy rains, poor drainage, clay soil, storms and floods. This leads to a buildup of excess water that pushes against the foundation causing cracks in the basement floor. The more water that enters your basement, the more likely it is that your basement will be humid and moldy. This can also increase your energy bill and allow dust mites to enter.

10. Window Well Entrance: Window wells are a clever installment that you can definitely benefit from. They are designed to allow your basement to receive sunlight through the windows while protecting them from excess water from the ground. Unfortunately, other water sources still get in. A common issue is gutter obstruction which may result in rain water spewing out of your gutter and filling the window well. To avoid this, make sure you regularly clean out your gutters, and redirect your downspouts away from your window wells. Also, make sure that your basement windows are good quality and properly installed.

How Can I Prevent Water Damage and Have a Dry Basement in Virginia?

The purpose of discussing why and how water is getting into your basement is not just for your education, but to help you know where to go from here! If you have experienced any of the above water issues in your home, you need to take the next steps to fix these problems and avoid future damage to your basement. Wet basements are not only dirty and unappealing, but they can cause serious health issues and damage the entire structure of your home.

Fortunately, there are many simple and cost-effective methods to fix a wet and damaged basement. The important thing to remember is that the water is your enemy, not the basement. No matter how much digging, replacing, or mending you do, the water will keep coming back, trying to enter your home. It is vital that you keep water as far away from your home as possible through proper drainage. To speak with a waterproofing consultant today about any concern you may have regarding your basement, feel free to contact Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry. Our highly trained and experienced professionals are happy to give you the safe and dry basement you’ve been waiting for!

Prevent Dust Mites, Mold, & Mildew with Basement Waterproofing in Virginia

A wet and damp basement can cause many problems. Besides losing living space and ruining personal possessions, a wet basement without basement waterproofing can cause an unhealthy home. Mold and mildew thrive in a damp, dark area. The mold spores can get into the air that you breath, causing you and your family a number of health issues. Among the health issues cause by mold and mildew are:

Stuffy nose
Throat irritation
Coughing and wheezing
Lung infections
Eye irritation

Along with mold and mildew, a wet basement becomes an inviting place for dust mites and critters.

The obvious sign of a wet or damp basement is standing water. However, there are more subtle signs that you may have a wet basement. Some of these signs are:

High humidity
Higher energy bills
Wood rot
Rust on appliances
Condensation on pipes
Musty odor

If you have any of these signs that you have a wet basement, it is important to have an experienced company inspect your home and offer the best solution for the repair. The professionals at Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry can come and give you a free inspection.

Basement Waterproofing Solutions in Virginia

Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry can get your basement livable again with proper basement waterproofing. We offer:

Interior drainage systems
Exterior drainage systems
Sump pumps and sump pits
Battery backup sump pumps

Interior drainage system – The simplest and least costly approach to interior waterproofing is a drain channel adhered at the base of the wall, on top of the footing. Water is collected and drained into a sump basin. As the basin gets to a certain level, the sump pump will automatically turn on and drain the water out of the basin and away from the foundation.

Exterior drainage system – Stopping water from surrounding the foundation is the best way to prevent water from entering your basement. With an exterior drainage system, water will not even get near your basement. This is done by installing a perforated drainage pipe along the exterior footing. This is then hooked up to a sump pump that drains the water away from the foundation.

Sump pumps and sump pits – The sump pumps that Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry installs are 1/3 to 1/2 horsepower that can pump up to 5,000 gallons per hour.

Battery backup sump pumps – In case of a power outage, Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry will install a battery backup sump pump that are the most energy efficient lineup of 12 volt backup sump pumps on the market.

All of the products that we use are manufactured by Earth Contact Products (ECP), the leader in the manufacturing of basement waterproofing products in the industry.

To prevent mold and mildew, let the experts at Reliable Waterproofing & Masonry install that basement waterproofing system to fit your needs. Contact us today for a free inspection and free estimate.

Common Water Problems in Richmond, VA

What are the most Common Water Problems in Virginia?

When you discover water in your basement, it is time to act quickly. Common water problems like wet basements can cause mold growth, damage furnishings, structure damage, and affect your health. Without proper waterproofing, the problem will get worse over time. At Reliable Waterproofing and Masonry, we can identify the source of your water issues to prevent water damage to your home. We are the waterproofing experts for the residents in Richmond, VA and the surrounding cities.

So what causes damp basements, and how can they be prevented in the first place? The most common causes of wet basement are due to the following issues:

Leaky Basements – Leaks are caused by clogged gutters and drains. Improper downspouts also cause leaks through basement walls from outside or down the ceiling from upper rooms.
Water in Yard – Pooling water in your yard causes basement floods and leaks. Make sure you have proper drainage to allow water to divert away from the foundation.
Water Seepage – Excess water causes wall cracks and settlement. As the water builds up, it presses against the basement walls causing cracking. Water seeps through the cracks, creating water puddles on your basement floor.
Cracks – Cracks can form on doors, walls, window frames or floors. Also look for soft spots and discolorations on the walls.
Condensation – Condensation usually occurs during the summer. During hot summers, the basement becomes cool making the humidity levels rise. This can also be caused by water vapor in the basement from washing.
Poor soil conditions – Poor soil conditions can cause soil erosion
Plumbing leaks – This could lead to soil erosion and settlement.

Look for signs that you have water problems. They can determine the type of water issue your home is having and locate the source. Some indicators include:

Rust stains
Insect infestation
Wood rot
Mold and mildew
Mineral deposits on surfaces
Water stains or dampness
Stained carpet

If you have any of these issues, give us a call so we can inspect your home.

Solutions for your Common Water Problems in Richmond, VA

One of the best ways to reduce water problems in your home is to get a basement waterproofing system. Our company provides free estimates with accurate information about waterproofing. We offer the following waterproofing systems:

Sump Pumps – removes water that is collected into the sump basin or pit
Battery Backup Sump Pumps – protects against flooding when your power goes out
Sump Pits – the unique design of the sump pit makes the sump pump system more efficient and effective
Interior Drainage Systems – a water management system that relieves excess water from surrounding the foundation and directs it to the sump pump system
Exterior Drainage Systems – used to divert water away from the foundation and prevents settlement

All of the waterproofing solutions are ways to prevent water problems from occurring in your basement. We’ll find the best solution that fits your waterproofing needs. We understand that every waterproofing issue is different. Contact us for a free estimate. We service Richmond, Virginia and the surrounding cities.