There seems to be a lot of confusion to what is actually happening when a basement floods. To understand this lets first look back at how an Atlanta home is built.
When a home is built a large hole is dug so that the concrete footings and foundation of the home can be poured, sometimes 6 to 8 feet below the surface. The concrete footings and foundations are poured and once the concrete is cured, the whole is backfilled with dirt. After the hole is backfilled, the rest of the home is built and the landscaping is added. We must remember the huge impact the dirt displacement has caused on the drainage.
The virgin soil around the excavation has been there for hundreds of years, and therefore is compacted to much greater levels than the active dirt that was excavated and compacted. Although this backfilled dirt is compacted as much as possible, the soil is still much loser than the virgin soil that was never touched. Lets take a look at what happens when precipitation is added to your Atlanta home.
Besides precipitation some homes have poor drainage. Some Atlanta homes are in a higher than normal water tables or are in a low locations of a neighborhood. These homes receive higher amounts of hydrostatic pressure. This pressure is relived finding the joint between the crack where the wall meets the floor and entering the basement. There is a way to prevent this.
By installing a French drain system that sits below the floor on top of the footing, this hydrostatic pressure is relieved. The water is collected before it enters the home and the pressure is relived by channeling the water to a sump pump or gravity exit line. By installing a footing drain on top of the footing, the drain can never clog and is a permanent fix for basement flooding.
Add living space to your Atlanta basement with confidence, knowing that it will never be exposed to outside ground water. Our state of the art Seal Guard System is the permanent solution to keeping your basement dry for many years to come.
