For the most part, whether you live in the city or the suburbs, you'll enjoy the comfort of your home throughout the four seasons, all year. And you should.
It is unusual to worry about the weather. This is something most home owners shouldn't have to worry about at anytime ! Unfortunately, there are occasions when mother nature takes over and this results in damages to your home.
Let's take the example of Montreal.
Water system overload
What started as a normal day and a forecast announcing a chance of rain Thursday night on August 8, became heavy pouring rain all night. This went on throughout the day and lasted more12 consecutive hours. The remnants of hurricane Debby, this means alot of water fell down, made it's way to through the sewers system that could not handle the pressure.
If you didn't know already, flooding in your home is actually caused by water reflux. It is most likely not caused by a crack in the foundation of your home or water infiltration through a window or door. And it's not the year or era in which your home was built. The water actually comes from the sewers, therefore it's a City issue.
Weak points in a home
Plumbing equipment are entry points. Shower base, toilets, garage floor drain, etc. When the pressure becomes too high, the water will get into the house and what happens next is disaster ! You can imagine of course, this is infected water, full of bacterias. It is sewage water that gets into your home because the systems cannot furnish. Now any surface that comes in contact with it in your home has to be disinfected.
But you can't really deep-clean wall surfaces. So usually water damage is followed by some type of renovation project to replace the floor, drywall and repaint the areas. It sucks ! Some insurance companies do not even cover what is referred as ''acts of God''. This means the company will pay a premium and you may have to pay out the rest, perhaps most of the bill out of your pocket.
A sewage system that was built for a 1000 homes in a neighborhood, won't be able to support a construction boom that connects more homes to it, let's say an extra10 000 units. Or if the system was meant to work well if there's 3 mm of rain per hour and the City gets 10 mm or more, there will be a flood. A few years ago a project was present to the city by mayor Alan De Sousa in Saint-Laurent borough, an area that's often flooded. It was for an underground collector that would retain about 67 000 m3 installed under a soccer field. But this measure did not pass with City council.
Across Canada
If you live by the water where there's a high chance of flood at anytime, then you probably were made aware of this at the time of purchasing your home. In winter the snow accumulates and melts gradually as the sun heats up the ground and Spring sets in. This is why there's no flooding occurrence in major urban cities, even the ones near sea levels.
In any case, flooding remains a rare event. A worse case scenario. So far In the history of Montreal there's been two major flooding events in the past 40 years. This is a good indicator for future generations.
Nowadays in a city you'll see the roads get flooded after a rainstorm. It is more and more common due to climate changes. In Montreal major roads were built in the 50's and 60's for a population of about 2 million people. When the population increased, many infrastructures did not follow. The City of Montreal is the home now to 4 million people with many owning more than two cars per household. And today, it's the reason why there's always traffic.
But it's one thing to get water damages in the summer and totally not ok if it this happen in the cold seasons of fall and winter. Keep this in mind.
Renovations after the damages
How can you prevent flooding in your home ? Can it be prevented ? The answer is yes. By keeping the water out.
You can do this with a sump pump in the lowest part of your basement to pump the water out. It is the best tip and line of defense in case of flooding.
Flood damage prevention tips :
Keep objects in the basement off the floor, on shelves.
Maintain gutters and downspouts.
Install a French drain.
Purchase a sump pump.
Add to your insurance a clause for floods.
Inspect your foundations and walls for cracks.
Work at keeping water away from your home.
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