Throughout the years, my wife and I had waded numerous flooded basements in our home which we bought several years back. However, we are proud to say that the volume of water that is coming into our basement is much lesser than it was the first time we encountered a flooded basement. Let me tell you about it.

The first time we had a flooded basement was during the first year of settling in our new house which we bought using money we had saved up. We didn't know that we would have a flooding problem until we were faced with a flooded basement one morning after a heavy downpour during the night. At first, we suspected that the flooding was caused by rain coming through the storm windows which we forgot to close during the night.

Drying and cleaning the flooded basement took my wife and I approximately a whole day so we decided to make the storm windows water tight by sealing in the sides of the window.

Thinking that the cause of flooding has already been corrected and dealt with, my wife and I were complacent that we would not see any more cases of flooding during our stay in our new house. That was what we thought.

Again, a flooded basement faced us one morning after another heavy downpour took place the year after. Perplexed by the cause of the flooding, we decided to hire a contractor to determine the cause and to prevent another flooding from happening.

The contractor gave us an expert diagnosis of our flooded basement problem. According to him, the house was built on land with a very high water table. This means that the ground surrounding the house's foundation is easily saturated with precipitation. The basement contractor also informed us that because of the hydrostatic pressure caused by the high amount of water in the ground, water would tend to seep through small cracks or pores in our basement walls. And since the basement walls are not painted and finished properly, more water would more likely the pores. This, he added, would make the foundation walls weaker and could cause structural collapse if not fixed immediately.

Concerned about the long term effects of flooded basement problems, my wife and I agreed to have our basement remodeled. After a couple of weeks and a few thousand dollars later, the basement was already finished.

The basement contractor made several changes in our basement which were designed to effectively prevent our basement from flooding. The contractor and his men first fixed and sealed all the cracks by caulking them. They then covered the basement walls with paint containing water sealant properties to further make the basement water tight. His team also replaced all busted water and sewage pipes with new ones. A submersible sump pump was also installed just in case a flooded basement will occur in the future. The sump pump will make it easier to dry a flooded basement because it pumps water out of the basement through hoses.

All in all, the basement contractor did a well-enough job of remodeling our basement and making it water tight. We still encounter flooded basements from time to time especially after heavy downfall but instead of having a pool of water, we just have small puddles which can easily be dried out with a mop.