Types of Home Water Problems

Leaks and Flooding

• Roof: Roof leaks come in two types: roofing failures and flashing leaks. Roofing failures are usually the result of age or wind damage. Flashing leaks may occur in roof valleys, around plumbing pipes and exhaust fans, and along the joint where a roof section on a lower story abuts a side wall on a higher story.
• Gutters and downspouts: Without proper maintenance, gutters and downspouts can easily become blocked by an accumulation of debris. This prevents the channeling of rainwater away from the house. Instead, rainwater may spill over the lip of the gutter and run down the exterior of the house, staining siding and windows. Cold temperatures can freeze water that doesn’t drain, allowing ice dams to form. Ice dams expand under the roofing and leak through the roof sheathing and into the ceiling below.
• Windows and doors: Flashing and caulking failures around windows and doors can lead to serious water damage. Once water penetrates the protective envelope formed by roofing, siding, flashing, and caulk, the dry wood framing beneath starts to absorb water like a sponge. Soon after, rot sets in. If you don’t repair leaks, the rot keeps spreading, weakening the wood and attracting carpenter ants and termites.
• Landscape grading: Depending on how the soil around your house grades (slopes), rainwater can be directed either toward or away from the fountain wall. If soil grades toward the wall, water can accumulate against the foundation, seep through the ground, and enter your basement through the joint between the bottom of the wall and the edge of the basement floor. If soil grades away from the house, on the other hand, water drains away from the foundation wall. The less water that bears against a wall, the less chance of water getting inside the house.
• Groundwater: If you live in an area with a high water table or a nearby underground spring, it may take only a couple rainy days or some typical spring snowmelt to force a lot of groundwater against the foundation of your house and into the basement through any existing cracks or joints. A well-designed drainage system will have exterior drainpipes around the foundation (next to the footings) to carry this water away. You can also remove ground water (less successfully) with a combination of interior drainpipes and a sump pump.

Water Quality

• Faucet-mounted carbon filters: These treat only the water you use for drinking and cooking. They come with replaceable cartridges that remove sediment and biological impurities.
• Reverse-osmosis (RO) filters: These remove chemical contaminants. They’re usually mounted under the sink along with an in-line carbon filter that removes sediment and biological impurities.
• Water softener: Hard water contains high levels of dissolved minerals, such as magnesium and calcium, that accumulate as deposits on metal surfaces and make cleaning difficult. Water softener removes them.