Do you ever wonder what it means when you have been told that your home is in an area with a high or low water table? A quick check into the reference books or on-line will tell you what you need to know about water tables and how it can affect your home. In Toronto, there are varying areas of high and low water tables, a variety of underground streams, and an aging sewer system. All of these factors can have an impact on your home.
Basements are often the final frontier of our homes, we don’t use the space well because it is often dark, below ground, and not finished. However, you can make this area a pleasant place by deciding to renovate or finish your basement. When you do decide to finish the basement of your home you need to do all your homework before you pick up a single tool.
Lots of homeowners, especially first time buyers, like the idea of being able to convert part of their new property into some sort of rental space. The extra income will help pay the mortgage and who doesn’t want that? The logical place to look is the generally unused basement of the home. In new or older homes, the basement is frequently unfinished and will take some work to prepare it for potential renters.
What is condensation? It is water that collects on a cold surface as beads or as a vapour when humid air is in contact with it. When you fill a glass with ice water and take it outside to enjoy in the sunshine, your glass quickly becomes slick with moisture. Your glass isn’t leaking! You have created the conditions for condensation. In your basement, when hot air meets cold walls, you are also creating the conditions for condensation.
Various cities, municipalities and regions in the Greater Toronto Area and Southern Ontario have introduced programs through which homeowners can obtain financial assistance to carry out some household plumbing, drain or sewer repairs, and associated renovations. The overall purpose of the grants, rebates and loan plans are to reduce the costs of meeting overall flood-reduction by-laws and codes.
A conscientious homeowner conducts regular inspections of his home including the basement and outer foundation walls. There are all sorts of clues that there is a problem with water or moisture damaging the home’s structural base. There is, of course, the obvious pool of water on the basement floor! There might even be evidence of shifting or cracking in the walls or floor.
There are few things better in life than buying your own home. There’s a reason why it’s a popular dream to be a home owner. A new house means freedom, space…and liabilities for anything that goes wrong inside your home. Unfortunately, those problems are more common than you think; and with them, all those home-buying joys can quickly turn into a nightmare scenario.
You and your family need more space but no one wants to move from your comfortable home or neighbourhood! You could build an addition but there goes the fantastic garden or back yard space and there are zoning issues. You could build up but that has serious budgetary considerations. Another way to increase the amount of living space in your home is to make better use of the existing basement area.
A basement flood results in more than lost valuables. It leaves lasting damage in the walls that give way to the growth of mould and mildew, which are hazardous to your health. This is a result of the moisture left behind by a flood and will require renovation of the walls and floor. However, a basement flood doesn’t have to be an eventuality if you install a sump pump.
If you’ve experienced a wet basement in the past, then you know the expensive costs that come with making the necessary repairs. Although the drywall and carpet can be replaced, it’s the destruction of our valuables that makes it sting.
