One of the items that is often found in the basement is the water heater. Water heaters can be a source of water damage because they have a lifespan of between 8 to 15 years after which time it is possible that rust can affect it. The water heater should be mounted in a drip pan that has been set up to take the water to the outside of the house.

An additional measure that you can take is to install water leak detection devices to the pipes leading to the house or at the water heater itself. These devices are able to detect that there is a leak in the pipe and will then send a signal to a shutoff valve to turn the water off stopping the leak immediately.

Either of these two measures could possibly save you a lot of money as well as keeping the house a healthy environment to live in. In both cases, without the measures water would have slowly flowed into the basement where it would have created a damp atmosphere for the rest of the place.

However there is another source of water that can get into the basement and that is through the walls themselves. In this case there may have been some kind of change to the external features of the yard that has contributed to this new problem. If earth has been moved and piled up against the external walls of the home it can promote moisture to be transferred though and into the house.

Another change may have been through some excavation that has altered the way in which the water flows through the yard. Instead of being directed away from the house the water flow may have been changed so that it is directed straight towards it. In this case it will be inevitable that the water makes it inside.

A readjustment to the drainage conditions will be essential and they will have to be made before the next big period of rainfall or else there will be a river flowing through your house. This kind of problem could call for an engineer to be brought in to solve the problem.

Identifying that there is going to be a potential problem is a big factor in avoiding water damage. Taking the correct steps is the second part of the puzzle and is often ignored as being unnecessary. Don’t leave it until it is too late, a small expense now will prevent huge expenses in the future.