How to Prevent Your House from Flooding
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To better protect your home from flood damage, assess the risk of flooding in your region and for your house specifically. You can carry out a range of preparations and renovations, such as installing a flood control system and applying sealants to any cracks in your home's foundation. Finally, ask your flood insurance agent, if you have one, which additional steps they’d recommend.
Table of contents:
Evaluate the risk of flooding in your home
The first step to flood protection is to determine how likely you are to experience a flood in your area and how well your house is built to withstand it. The Federal Emergency Management Agency FEMA Flood Map Service Center shows general flood risk by region. Enter your address in the search bar to see your area's flood zones, or click "Search All Products" and select your state, county and community to see reports of your region's flood history.
The flood maps include a number of zone markings that indicate the flood risk of a region and its relevant structures, such as bridges, dams and levees. Some of the zones are:
- Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA): These are shaded blue on the FEMA map and have zone names beginning with an A or V. They are the 1% annual chance zones and likely to face significant flooding at least once every 100 years. Although 1% may seem minimal, FEMA still considers this a high-risk designation, so you should take adequate steps to flood-proof your home.
- Regulatory floodways: These zones are shown on the map with blue and red stripes and often include a river and its surrounding floodplain. While they are usually kept clear to allow water to drain from adjacent flood zones, some houses may be built in or near regulatory floodways. If this is the case for your home, take extensive precautions to protect the house from flooding. These areas also carry a 1% annual chance of flooding.
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Zones B and X: These are 0.2% annual chance zones. FEMA states that these orange-shaded zones are likely to face significant flooding at least once every 500 years. Because these regions face a lower flood risk than blue zones, your flood insurance rates will likely be lower. However, you should still make sure your house is not at risk of flooding due to leaks or excessive surface runoff after rainstorms.
- Zone D: These areas have an undetermined flood risk. They appear light yellow-orange on the map. If you live in or are looking to buy property in that zone, we recommend researching the area's flood history. Ask neighbors what kind of flooding they've seen over the course of their time there, and make certain with your appraiser and flood insurance agent that the property is built to withstand any likely flooding.
When viewing maps for your region, note the year the map was made. If it is severely outdated, the actual flood risk in your area might be different than what’s presented on the map.
Next, work with your flood insurance agent or adjuster to determine the specific flood level of your house.
The flood level is the height to which floodwaters could rise during inclement weather. Ideally, your home should be built above this level in order to be reasonably protected from flood damage. If your house is at the bottom of a valley, for example, it could have a higher flood level than a neighbor's house that’s uphill of yours, since more water might flow toward your home.
Learn how floodwater might enter your house by evaluating the surface runoff the next time you experience significant rain or snowmelt. Note whether the water flows toward or away from your home, as well as any doors or basement windows where it pools. This will help you understand the overall risk of flooding and identify specific areas that might benefit from dry flood-proofing techniques.
Your standard homeowners insurance policy does not protect you from flooding. Instead, you'll need to purchase flood insurance either through the National Flood Insurance Program or as an additional policy with your homeowners insurance company.
Prepare your house to resist flooding
Once you've assessed your home's overall risk of flooding, properly flood-proof your home. The necessary steps can range from expensive home renovations to basic maintenance. The steps you should take will depend on your home's risk and how well the home was built to withstand flooding.
Flood-proofing renovations
If you're building in a flood-prone area or your home was not built to withstand rising water, some flood-proofing work may be required to minimize flood damage. Here are some methods of flood control to protect your home from rising water.
- Raise your home on stilts or piers. While expensive to build retroactively, raising your house on stilts will also raise the flood level. Even an inch of floodwater can lead to significant damage, so raising your home above the flood level will substantially protect your home.
- Install foundation vents or a sump pump. Foundation vents, a form of wet flood-proofing, allow water to flow through your home, rather than pool around it. This both provides an outlet for floodwater and relieves the significant pressure it can put on your walls and basement windows. Sump pumps are frequently used to pump water out of basements where flooding happens regularly. We recommend a sump pump with a battery backup, in case the power goes out.
- Apply coatings and sealants. A form of dry flood-proofing, applying coatings and sealants to your foundation, walls, windows and doorways can help prevent floodwater from leaking into your house through cracks.
- Raise your electrical outlets and switches. All outlets, switches, sockets and circuit breakers should be at least one foot above flood level to avoid significant electrical damage from a flood.
- Install check valves on your pipes. Make sure all the pipes entering your house have valves to prevent a flooded sewage system from backing up into your home. Gate valves are preferred over flap valves, because they provide a better seal against flood pressure.
- Grade your lawn away from the house. If your lawn tilts toward your house, rainwater will pool around your home. Use a heavy soil that contains clay and sand to regrade your lawn so that surface runoff empties into an appropriate place, such as a street gutter.
- Leave space between mulch and siding. Wet mulch can rot some types of siding, which can lead to leaks. Keep space between your mulch and siding so that the base of your house can completely dry after rainstorms.
- Point your downspouts away from your home. If your gutter runoff is not pointed away from your house in an appropriate direction, it can pool at the corners of your house and may eventually create leaks in your basement.
In addition to renovations, protect your home's internal and external appliances by raising them above the flood level. Usually, you can do this inexpensively by placing them on concrete blocks. Here are some appliances that should be elevated above flood level:
[list"] Air-conditioning units Generators Water heaters Washing machines Dryers [/list]Take preventive steps when flooding starts
If a storm is imminent or flooding has already started, follow these steps to minimize flooding and water damage to your property:
- Shut off the main water line, if that is the source of the flooding.
- Clear out gutters and drains, so water can flow freely.
- Use sandbags to block any gaps that will lead to flooding.
- Move rugs, furniture, electronics and other valuables to a higher floor of your home, or elevate them.
- Shut off your electricity at the breaker panel if floodwater is close to reaching your electrical system.
- If it's not raining, open windows to allow airflow through your home.
- Turn on your sump pump or use a wet/dry vacuum to remove water as quickly as possible.
- Photograph or take a video of any flooding to document and defend your claim with your flood insurance provider.