The Real Estate Browser Volume 7, Issue 17 | Page 20

20 — Say you saw it in The Real Estate Browser of Lynchburg — Volume 7 Number 17 www.LynchburgRealEstateBrowser.com THE WET BASEMENT BLUES By Drew Howard , President, HomePro, Inc. There are times that try men’s souls, and dampen an ankle or two as well. The combination of prolonged rains and poorly draining soils is one of those times. The result is water seepage into the basement. A Few Definitions Probably the most used and abused word in the wet basement business is hydrostatic pressure. Essentially, all this term means is that the weight of a column of water exerts pressure. The pressure exerted is exactly equal to the weight of a one-inch square cross sectional column of water, or directly proportional to the height of the column. In wet basement terms, this means how deep is the basement and is the ground around it saturated? Saturated earth means that the soil particles are wet and the space between them is filled with water. When water saturates to a certain depth, pressure will form. When a lower pressure area exists, within a saturated earth zone, the water within the zone flows to the low pressure area. Liken this to an empty bucket with a hole in the bottom being pushed down into a bathtub full of water. As the bucket fills with water, the level of the water in the tub lowers. The same principal applies with wet basements. Surface water is water that has landed on the earth’s surface in the form of rain. It can also be runoff water from roofs or neighboring hillsides. Ground water is water that is contained within an aquifer. Aquifers are water bearing strata beneath the earth’s surface that exist above a relatively impermeable layer, usually within a gravel or sand layer. The upper reach of an aquifer is called the water table. The water table will rise and fall with the pattern of seasonal rains. It takes a long time for an aquifer to be recharged because it requires surface water and aquifers tend to extend over very wide areas and contain billions of gallons of water. They tend to rise and fall only with prolonged seasonal weather, not with individual rains. Water tables are discharged when they are pumped through a well, for example. Ground water can sometimes be seen on the earth’s surface, usually in swamps or quarries. Perched water tables are miniature aquifers. A hillside or drainage area will trap runoff water in a low area, allowing it to seep into the earth until it reaches a relatively impermeable layer of soil or rock. Here it will tend to form ponds. Some Basic Facts of Construction • No basement can ever be built to be entirely waterproof.