Transformed in sophisticated home theaters, fully accessorized “man caves”, play rooms, home offices, home gyms, and even extra bedrooms for growing families, finished basements are becoming increasingly popular. With the housing crisis and the credit crunch, many homeowners who once considered moving to a bigger house or building an addition, begin to look at their unfinished basement as a potential living area.
According to Remodeling Magazine’s Cost vs. Value report, basement finishing is one of the improvements that offer the best investment return in terms of increasing or adding value to the property.
Add to that the fact that a basement can be finished for about 50% of the cost and, with the right finishing choices, none of the hassle and disruption of building an addition.
Not to mention that, according to the U, insulated basements improve a home’s overall energy efficiency, allowing homeowners to significant
There is, however, one may concern that might keep some homeowners from considering a basement remodel, and rob many who already finished theirs from their sleep: basement floods.
They are a homeowner’s worst nightmare.
Every year, during the raining season, millions of dollars are spent in post flood cleanup, mold remediation and replacement of damaged property.
To make matters worse, many homeowners are not covered against flood by their insurance policies.
What very few homeowners know is that there are ways to reduce the odds of a basement flood to statistical insignificance, no matter where you live and how heavy is the raining season.
The main cause of basement floods is sump pump failure or absence. A sump pump is the first line of defense against basement flooding.
However, the same storms that bring in the kind of rain that can flood a basement also have the potential to cause widespread and long lasting power outages, thus rendering the most powerful sump pump in the market, completely useless.
In addition, as every piece of equipment, sump pumps may eventually have mechanical problems and stop working. The best way to guarantee that your basement won’t go under water due to sump pump failure is to install a backup pump, to work with the main pump.
There are two types of backup systems available today:
Water powered backup sump pumps, which rely on a consistent water supply to operate (usually the city’s). Not recommended if your water is supplied by a well with an electric pump of course. It will be out of commission if there is a power outage.
Battery-operated back up sump pump systems. There are several options in the market, most of which, are powered by adapted marine batteries. The most reliable systems, however, have a proprietary battery specially developed for this purpose that, unlike marine batteries, are capable of withstanding long periods of being unused.
Ideally, a backup sump pump would feature a switch system that will cause the backup to kick in when the main pump is out of commission. Good systems will also include an alarm to let you know when the main pump shuts down.
Consider that installing the most sophisticated backup sump pump system in the market will still cost several thousands of dollars less than cleaning up and restoring a finished basement. So why leave it to chance?
If you have a home with a basement worth finishing, it is worth to have your investment and property protected against flood damage. You can’t afford not having a backup sump pump.
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