Who To Call When You Find Standing Water in Your Crawl Space
Water coming into your crawl space is never a good thing. Often the crawl space is the last spot that you will pay attention to. It is in an inconvenient place that you may not encounter that often and it can really get messy without regular maintenance. When this happens, you could end up with water that sits there for a long time.
When you start to notice there is water in your crawl space, you need to get it cleaned up and you need to figure out how the water got there in the first place. This can help to prevent mold and mildew getting into the home and will prevent the water from getting back into the crawl space again.
Let’s take a close look at who you need to call to help handle any of the standing water that is found in your home. There are a few good places to start, including your insurance company to see if they will pay for the cleaning and any repairs necessary, who can help. You handle the standing water.
Your Insurance Company
One of the first groups that you should call when you see water in the crawl space is your insurance company. Depending on the insurance policy that you use, there is a chance that they can cover up some of the costs of this water damage. If there is no immediate danger from the water being there, you need to give your insurance a call to see if they will cover the work to fix it up.
Most insurance companies will cover water damage when it is internal and sudden. This means that they will help cover:
- Vandalism
- A sink or bath that overflows
- Leaks in the roof
- Water damage when you use it to put out a fire.
- Any faults in the plumbing.
- Snow or rainstorms
There are a few times when the insurance company will not cover the damage at all. If there is poor maintenance of the pipes, flooding (this will need a separate policy to help), or backups from sewage or water pipes, then the policy will not be covered. Always check your home insurance policy on a regular basis to make sure that different problems will be covered.
Previous Contractors Who Have Worked on the Home
There is a chance that the water in your crawl space is because a previous contractor who did work on the home before. If you have had work done in the past three months or so with the plumbing, crawl space, landscaping, and foundation of your home, then you may need to check into the warranty of the work and see if they can do something to fix some of the issues with the water.
Waterproofing Company
Overall, if you find there is a leak in your crawl space, you may need to work on getting it fixed and this will involve a bit of waterproofing in your home. You can do a bit of the work yourself with waterproof paint or paneling. However, talking to an expert ahead of time is one of the best ideas. It can be a little expensive to fix this with waterproofing, but you will find that you will never have to fix the problem again.
Plumber
There may be times when you find water in the crawl space but you are not sure where it came from. When this happens, you need to call in a plumber to take a look at the issue and check where the water is leaking from. It may be possible for the water to come from a burst pipe or some kind of overflow somewhere. The plumber can help you out if a piping problem is the cause of the water getting into that space.
The plumber will not only be able to check the piping and see if there is something wrong there, but they will also take a look to help clean up the mess in some cases. If not, they will at least be able to give you some recommendations on how to take care of the standing water and get it removed from your home after checking all the pipes.
Foundation Expert
If you have found water in crawl space, there is a chance that the water made it there through some of the cracks in the foundation of your home. This could be a bigger problem than it may seem. If the plumber comes in and notices there are bigger problems, then you may need to call someone in who has worked on foundation repair.
The foundation of your home is important. As soon as you notice there is some kind of problem with the foundation, you need to get someone in to fix the problem. Leaving the foundation problem until later is never a good idea. This will just make it worse and can cost a lot more money if you are not careful. When the foundation expert comes to look it over, discuss what things with the foundation need to be fixed to keep water out of the crawl space.
Landscaper
Sometimes the reason that the water makes it into a crawl space is due to the grading in the yard. If the current landscaping around the home has it sloping right to the basement, this can cause issues. And if you have some flower beds that are near the home, overwatering them can cause problems as well. Take the time to have a landscaper come look over the area to give you some options when you want to change up your yard.
When you find standing water in the crawl space, you may worry about how the water got there and how to clean everything up well. When you find this kind of water, you should start calling down the list to help you get the problem fixed and to keep the crawl space cleaned up and doing well.
