Author: simon@scottishplumber.com

When Should a Homeowner Invest in a Flood Control System?

Flooding is a natural disaster that can cause significant damage to homes and properties, leading to costly repairs and emotional distress. As climate change continues to exacerbate weather patterns, the frequency and severity of floods are increasing.

Homeowners need to consider investing in flood control systems to protect their homes and assets.

But when is the right time to make this investment, and why is it crucial?

This article will explore the factors influencing this decision and the benefits of proactive flood management.

Assessing the Risk of Flooding

The first step in determining when to invest in a flood control system is to assess the risk of flooding in your area. Several factors can influence this risk:

  1. Geographic Location: Homes located in floodplains, near rivers or lakes, are at higher risk. Understanding your location’s flood history and potential is critical.
  2. Weather Patterns: Regions prone to heavy rainfall or snowmelt can experience frequent flooding. Monitoring weather patterns and changes in climate can provide insight into potential risks.
  3. Topography: The landscape around your home, including elevation and drainage patterns, can affect flood susceptibility. Low-lying areas or properties with poor drainage are more vulnerable.
  4. Urban Development: Increased urbanization can lead to reduced natural drainage, increasing flood risk. New construction and infrastructure changes can alter water flow, impacting your property.

Timing the Investment

Once the risk has been assessed, homeowners should consider the following scenarios for investing in a flood control system:

  1. After a Flood Event: Experiencing a flood firsthand often prompts immediate action. While this is a reactive approach, it underscores the importance of protection. Investing in flood control systems after a flood can prevent future incidents.
  2. Before Severe Weather Seasons: If your area is known for seasonal flooding, investing in a flood control system before the rainy or snowmelt season can provide peace of mind and physical protection.
  3. During Home Renovations or Purchases: If you are renovating your home or purchasing a new property, it is an ideal time to install flood control systems. Integrating these systems during renovation is often more cost-effective and less disruptive.
  4. Changes in Risk Assessment: Regularly updating your flood risk assessment based on new data or environmental changes can prompt timely investments. If new infrastructure or climate data indicates increased risk, it is prudent to act sooner rather than later.

Types of Flood Control Systems

Homeowners have a variety of flood control systems to choose from, depending on their specific needs and risks:

  1. Sump Pumps: The most basic protection. Sump pumps are installed in basements or crawl spaces to remove accumulated water and prevent flooding.
  2. French Drains: A trench filled with gravel or rock containing a perforated pipe that redirects surface water and groundwater away from your home.
  3. Backflow Valves: These valves prevent sewage from backing up into your home during heavy rains.
  4. Overhead Sewer Systems: The most effective flood control system of all:

overhead sewer conversion

An overhead sewer system prevents basement flooding by rerouting wastewater through pipes that are elevated above the basement level, thereby reducing the risk of backflow from the main sewer system. Here’s how it works:

  1. Installation of Overhead Sewer Pipes: The existing basement drain pipes are disconnected from the main sewer line. Instead, they are connected to a new overhead sewer pipe, which runs above the basement floor level, usually at or above the height of the first floor.
  2. Sump Pit and Pump: A sump pit is installed in the basement floor to collect wastewater from basement fixtures like sinks, toilets, and laundry machines. This pit contains a sump pump that lifts the wastewater up to the overhead sewer pipe.
  3. Gravity Flow: Once the wastewater is pumped up to the overhead sewer pipe, it flows by gravity out to the main sewer line. Since the main sewer line connection is now above the basement level, any backflow from the sewer system would have to rise to the level of the overhead sewer pipe, which is typically higher than any potential flood level.
  4. Check Valve: Some systems include a check valve in the overhead sewer line to provide an extra layer of protection against backflow.

By elevating the discharge point of the basement plumbing above the level of potential sewer backflow, an overhead sewer system effectively prevents basement flooding. This system is particularly useful in areas prone to heavy rainfall or where the municipal sewer system may become overwhelmed, causing backflow into lower-level drains and fixtures.

And as anyone who has been flooded by sewage water can attest, it’s not a situation any homeowner wants to find themselves in.

Benefits of Investing in Flood Control Systems

  1. Protection of Property: The primary benefit is safeguarding your home and belongings from water damage, which can be costly to repair.
  2. Insurance Savings: Many insurance companies offer lower premiums for homes equipped with flood control systems, reducing overall expenses.
  3. Increased Property Value: Homes with flood mitigation measures in place are more attractive to buyers, potentially increasing resale value.
  4. Peace of Mind: Knowing that your home is protected can reduce stress and anxiety during severe weather events.

Investing in a flood control system is a proactive measure that can save homeowners significant time, money, and stress.

Assessing your flood risk and timing your investment appropriately are crucial steps in protecting your property.

With the increasing unpredictability of weather patterns, being prepared is more important than ever. By understanding when and why to invest in flood control, homeowners can make informed decisions that safeguard their homes and enhance their quality of life.

How To Prevent Spring Home Flooding

Spring home flooding can occur due to heavy rainfall, snowmelt, or a combination of both. To prevent spring home flooding, here are some tips:

  1. Maintain your gutters and downspouts: Ensure that your gutters and downspouts are clear of debris and are directing water away from your home’s foundation. Make sure that the downspouts are positioned at least five feet away from the foundation.
  2. Install a sump pump: A sump pump can be installed in the basement or crawl space to pump water out of your home if it starts to flood. Make sure to test it regularly to ensure that it is working correctly.
  3. Elevate important items: If you have items in your basement or lower level that are important or valuable, consider elevating them off the floor to prevent water damage.
  4. Seal foundation cracks: Check your foundation for any cracks and seal them to prevent water from seeping in.
  5. Install backflow prevention valves: Install backflow prevention valves (or another type of flood control system) on all pipes that lead into your home to prevent sewage backup.
  6. Install flood sensors: Install flood sensors in areas of your home that are prone to flooding. These sensors can alert you when there is water present, giving you time to take action
  7. If you’re not sure about any of the items above and would like someone to inspect your home and ensure it is ready for spring, feel free to give us a call or fill out this appointment form and one of The Scottish Plumber’s friendly staff will give you a call to schedule a visit.

5 Ways to Protect Your Home From Water Damage

It is estimated that homeowners spend in excess of $3,000 each year repairing the damage done by water. However, with proper planning and preparation, this cost can be completely avoided. As such, consider any of the following 5 tips for protecting your home from water damage.

1. Apply Step Flashing to the Roof

Upgrading the roof is a necessary step in making your home water-resistant. After all, the roof is one of the most common locations for leaks that can trickle into your home and create an entire trail of problems.

However, a new roof will not last long without the proper step flashing. If you are wondering what is step flashing roof, it is not the same type of liquid flashing applied to walls or windows. Step flashing for the roof is a piece of metal, bent at 90 degrees, that goes between the sidewall, dormer, or chimney. It is commonly made of aluminum, galvanized steel, or copper. Without step flashing, water can get under the roof shingles and rot the wood decking substructure, damage insulation, and leak through to drywall. As such, step flashing is a vital complementary repair when upgrading your roof.

2. Avoid Frozen Pipes and Ice Dams

Winter in the Chicago area results in a high incidence of frozen pipes and ice dams. Frozen pipes will cause cracks and leaks that become extremely damaging once thawing occurs, while ice dams cause a backup in gutters that leads to water leaking into the home.

To avoid both of these issues, it is important to contact professionals with the necessary tools and equipment to combat the ice. The Scottish Plumber has special steam-based systems for eliminating ice dams and pipe-thawing equipment that will prevent frozen pipes from bursting, ensuring that the cold of winter does not lead to water damage once thawing occurs.

3. Treat Your Siding

Siding is one area of the home that takes a lot of abuse from inclement weather and projectile impact. This can lead to cracks and fissures that allow moisture into the home.

When assessing the condition of your siding, look for large cracks and determine if the section needs to be replaced. If it appears manageable, try filling the gap with a silicone- or polyurethane-based sealant. Once all major breaches are accounted for, apply a moisture resistant exterior paint to fill in all small fissures and protect your siding from subsequent moisture damage.

4. Damp Proof the Foundation Walls

Protecting your foundation from water damage is essential, as any damage to below-grade areas of the home can be expensive–if not impossible–to repair (some figures show that water damage in the basement can cost up to $85,000 to remedy!). One of the most straightforward ways to protect your below-grade structures is by damp proofing your foundation walls. This typically involves spraying or rolling a water-resistant coating onto the surface. It helps prevent water from the soil from seeping into the foundation.

In some cases where there are large amounts of hydrostatic pressure, damp proofing the foundation may not be enough. More comprehensive waterproofing systems will be required. This involves adding a water-permeable membrane to the foundation walls that directs water down to a drainage mat or board. From there, the water is sent to underground pipes and drained away from the home’s foundation.

5. Add Drainage to Your Exterior Areas

There are several areas of your exterior that need proper landscape drains to prevent water damage.

First, all lawns and landscaping need to be sloped slightly away from your home so that water does not flow toward the building. In addition, ensure that the ground is properly aerated so that the soil can more easily absorb water and prevent situations of powerful runoff.

Next, make sure that the driveway has a good drainage system in place. Concrete driveways should be built with a slot drain to prevent water from glossing over the top and eroding the surrounding landscape. However, it is still possible for water to wash away the substrate of a concrete driveway, causing the surface to crack and buckle. Therefore, the best driveways for areas of high precipitation are gravel driveways that are held in place with permeable paver grids.

Finally, make sure that the pool and patio area of your home is equipped with a trench or grate drain to prevent standing water from building up and causing cracking or discoloration.

Stay Ahead of Water Damage With These 5 Tips

Water damage causes homeowners a sizable chunk of money every year. Fortunately, with the proper planning and execution, this can be rendered a completely unnecessary expense. With this in mind, applying step flashing to the roof, preventing frozen pipes and ice dams, treating your siding, damp proofing the foundation walls, and adding drainage to your exterior areas are 5 of the best ways to protect your home from water damage.

Todd Gillman is the content director for the Innovative Building Materials blog and a content writer for the building materials industry. He is focused on helping fellow homeowners, contractors, and architects discover materials and methods of construction that save money, improve energy efficiency, and increase property value. 

What’s Up With the Mound of Dirt After a Sewer Repair?

So you’ve just had your sewer repaired.

You’re still recovering from the shock of learning that a pipe that carries waste out of your home was broken and cost thousands of dollars to fix. Let’s face it, before this happened, you hadn’t given much thought to your sewer and its function. You probably didn’t even remember it was there. Now your yard has been torn up and your pocket book is substantially lighter.

A rude awakening, no doubt. But now to top this all off, you come home from work and find a 4-foot tall mound of dirt in your front yard. Thinking that the job is incomplete, you call the contractor to see what’s going on and you get another surprise. The contractor tells you that the mound is there for settling, and settle it will…for months. And that if you take away any of that dirt before it has a chance to settle, you will be left with a hole in your yard.

So, you’ve now had a sewer backup into your house, paid thousands for the repair, and now you have to see one of these every time you look out your window.

Dirt mound
The dreaded mound of dirt.

How and Why Dirt Settles

First, let’s consider the physics behind soil settlement. According to the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, the following is a fairly typical soil composition by volume:

• 45% Minerals (silt, sand, clay, stone, etc.)

• 25% Water (depends on water holding capacity of soil and precipitation)

• 25% Air

• 5% Organic matter (living and dead organisms)

The majority of soils is made up of minerals which vary in size and can range from large stones all the way to tiny clay particles, smaller than .002 millimeters in diameter and invisible to the naked eye. The spaces between these particles are occupied by water and air.

When a sewer repair is performed, the excavation disturbs the soil, the pockets between the minerals become larger, and water and air move in. The decades of compression which formed this naturally compacted soil have just been undone in a single day.

The Scottish Plumber digging to repair sewer
The Scottish Plumber repairing a sewer in Barrington.

And so here we are, with the giant mound in your yard, wondering what can be done. The good news is that at this point, there are still some things you can do to speed up the process. The bad news is that it won’t be by much.

What Can Be Done to Speed Up the Settling of the Mound

You can start by digging small holes several feet apart in the mound, just large enough to fit a garden hose. Then stick the garden hose into each opening, and run the water for a few hours. The water will help push out some of the pockets of air, and reduce the spaces between mineral particles, which will help with the settling process. If you have a piece of metal pipe, you can use it to get a little deeper into the mound, feed the hose into the pipe, and then run the water for a couple of hours

You should do this every few days, especially in the absence of rain. You can also use a hand tamper to tamp down the dirt every so often, and finally when the dirt is low enough to push a roller over it, you can give that a try for a nice finishing move.

Unfortunately, the majority of the work needed to reduce the settling time should have already been done. Quality plumbers and excavators will take some additional steps during the backfilling process in order to expedite the settling, including using a tamper to compact the dirt with every foot or so of backfill.

There’s no way to make the dirt settle instantly. Even the most well-compacted backfills will still require a small mound to be left behind to settle, but that mound should be no higher than a foot or two at the most, not three or four (one exception to this is when the ground is frozen – in such a case, it will be more difficult to compact.)

The best companies will also take account of how much new material was introduced into the trench when the repair was performed. Keep in mind that the dirt forming the giant mound is only the dirt that was taken out of the ground during the excavation, nothing more. However, plumbers will often bed new pipe in gravel to keep it from settling and shearing off, and sometimes the repair will include more or larger pipe than what was replaced. The best contractors will take the volume of these items into account when measuring the amount of backfill, and take away just enough soil to make sure that the mound settles perfectly a few months after completion.

Alternatives to Excavation

Of course the best way to avoid the giant mound of dirt in your yard is not to dig in the first place. There are several options available to repair a broken underground pipe without the need for excavation.

The Scottish Plumber specializes in these types of repairs. Our Trenchless Sewer Repair System and our Pipe Stent procedure can help homeowners avoid messy digs, and can repair most broken sewer pipes without the need for demolition, excavation, or restoration.

For more information, check out the video below, click on the links above, or visit us at www.scottishplumber.com.

 

April Showers Bring…Backed Up Sewers?!

Spring is almost here again and the one thing we can count on is that water will fall from the sky!  Chicago has averaged close to 37 inches of rain per year over the last 30 years with approximately 2/3 of it coming in the spring and summer months, and these figures are trending upwards.

chicago-rainfall

More rain means more problems for the already inundated system of Chicago sewers. With every major storm, it seems, some municipal storm and sanitary sewers become filled to capacity and pressurized, and too often the path of least resistance leads the sewer water directly into someone’s basement.

What can homeowners do?  For starters, you should have your main sewer line cleaned and video-inspected to ensure that it is structurally sound and unobstructed.  April showers may bring May flowers, but they also cause tree roots to grow faster which can wreak havoc inside of a sewer pipe.  Having the sewer rodded can prevent backups caused by tree roots before they even happen.

A clean sewer, however, will not stop a backup from a pressurized city sewer.  The only measure against flooding from city sewers is the installation of a flood control system, or the conversion of the sewer to an overhead system.

The Scottish Plumber offers several different options for flood control.  Call us today for a sewer rodding and video inspection service (starting at $99 with an outside access), and ask for a free estimate for a flood control system.  We can find an option that fits both your needs and your budget, and lets you keep your mind on the flowers when the spring showers come.

 

The Scottish Plumber’s Tramco Flood Control Systems Will Give You the Peace of Mind You’ve Been Looking For

When it comes to Chicago flood control, the Tramco Pump Company is a local icon.  Tramco has been building pumps for the Chicago market since the 1950’s and their systems are designed to handle the kind of conditions that only Chicago weather can bring.

Besides sump pumps, ejector pumps, and batter backup systems, the Tramco Pump Company also manufactures the 900 series of flood control systems.  These systems can be installed inside or outside of the home, depending on homeowner preference and the configuration of the existing pipes.  The Tramco 950 is typically installed in the front yard, while the 960 is installed in the basement floor.  Each unit comes with a heavy-duty pump enclosed in an aluminum encasement, and the flow is controlled with a system of check valves.  The Tramco flood control system keeps city sewers from backing up into your basement, while allowing waste to continue exiting your home.

Tramco systems are extremely reliable and Tramco, along with the Scottish Plumber, guarantee each system for 10 years with both parts and installation covered.  And while most flood control systems require regular maintenance, such as cleaning the lines, and lubricating the check valves, the Tramco system is virtually maintenance-free.

For a free estimate on installing a Tramco flood control system or any other type of flood control such as our double-check valve system, sump pumps, ejector pumps, or battery backups, give us a call at 888-451-6137 or contact us here.

10 Ways to Stop Basement Flooding

1. Make sure you have a working sump pump.

2. Make sure your sump pump pit is properly sized.

3. Clean out the bottom of the sump pump pit to prevent debris from entering the pump.

4. Install a battery back-up system to ensure that your sump pump continues working
during power loss.

5. Have your foundation inspected for cracks.

6. Have your drain tile inspected.

7. Convert to overhead sewer to prevent city sewers from backing up into your basement.

8. Install a double-check valve flood control system.

9. Install a Tramco flood control system.

10. Move somewhere where it doesn’t rain.  Note: try the previous nine options first!

Chicago Flood Control Help – The Spring Is Here!!!

Here in Chicago we dread our winters.  That’s why when the old man came and went with barely a whimper, we all let out a collective sigh of relief.  No snowmaggedon this year!!!

But, that doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods, weather-wise.  The strange winter could be a harbinger of more weird weather to come. That means the potential for many torrential downpours, thunderstorms, and flash floods.  And that’s not very good news for the aging municipal storm sewer systems all over Chicagoland.

In just the last two years, we’ve seen some of the worst flooding to ever hit Chicago.  Last year’s July storms hit homeowners harder and flooded more basements than most of us had ever experienced.  City sewers became filled to capacity and overflowed into people’s homes.  To prevent the same from happening this year, be proactive.

If you’ve experienced basement flooding in the past, and you’ve done nothing to address the underlying cause, then you can expect more of the same.  There are different reasons for basement flooding, but each one of them has a solution.  You can find more information here on our flood control page or on our sump pump page.

This year, make the right decision, and have your home inspected by a flood control specialist.  If you call The Scottish Plumber, the assessment is free, and we will present you with several options to help fit your needs and your budget.  You won’t regret it, and you’ll finally be able to stop building that ark.

Lemon Scones with Lemon Glaze

Serves/Makes:   16

Ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons grated lemon peel
1/2 cup butter (cut into 1/2-inch pieces)
2 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup milk
1 cup dried cranberries are a nice addition to this recipe

Directions:
Preheat oven to 450degrees F. Grease and flour baking sheet.
Sift flour, sugar and salt in bowl. Stir in peel. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Blend in eggs and just enough milk to form soft but not sticky dough. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface. Gently roll or pat dough to about 1/2-inch thickness, lightly flouring as necessary to prevent sticking.
Cut out rounds using 2-inch floured biscuit cutter. Set 1/2-inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Brush with cream or milk for a rich sheen. Bake until scones are golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

Lemon Glaze -After baking add glaze as desired
In small bowl: add 1 cup powdered sugar and lemon juice to desired consistency.  Drizzle over lightly cooled scones.

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