When you have a basement in your home, there are a lot of options as to what you can use it for. Many of us use it only for storage. It may be used as a roomy laundry area and house our washer and dryer. People who want some extra living space will often make it into a playroom for the kids or an office. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination.

The idea of converting your basement into comfortable living area is out of the question as long as you have a water or moisture problem. If you are experiencing huge flooding problems, then hiring a specialist to have the issue resolved is probably going to be the smartest answer. Some water issues will not be fixed good enough by an inexperienced handy man job.

Your home owner's insurance policy should probably cover fixing the problem if it was not a preexisting condition when your home was insured. Insurance coverage will vary and quite often where water flooding is concerned. If your basement water dilemma is not really bad, then you might be able to take care of it by yourself.

If you have an issue causing damp walls in the basement, a dehumidifier will help to solve the problem, but if you want to make a livable room in the basement, you will probably need to take more action. If there are obvious moist areas inside or outside which you can clearly see, it should not be hard to find the cause of the wetness and it may be pretty easy to repair. Dampness or flowing water can make its way in when there is a crack from mortar damage in the concrete foundation.

To solve the problem you will need to open the spot up by taking out any loose mortar and brushing the spot free of debris. You can do this using a hammer, a chisel, and a steel or hard bristled brush. Wet the section to be redone with a spray bottle that contains water.

You have to use a hydraulic cement to fill in the hole. Read the mixing directions exactly. The mixture will need to have just the right consistency to get a fairly firm ball. Start pushing the mixture into the opening until you have it totally filled. Use a trowel to scrape off any extra mortar before the cement begins to harden. When it is thoroughly dried, use the brush to buff the surface off.

If a damaged area somewhere on the blocks or mortar does not appear to be your problem, the moisture and water seepage may be caused from your gutters or the landscaping around the residence foundation. Putting an extension to the bottom of a gutter is good to keep the water away from a foundation. If this does not work either, this will be when you should call that water damage business to better identify the problem.