Jul 17 2006
The phones were ringing off the hook. Homeowners, who never had a drop of water in their basements before, were knee deep in ground water seeping in all over. The flash floods over the past few weeks in the Washington, DC and Maryland areas, as well as in the Northeast, have caused problems in even the driest homes.
"We were on the five, six and ten o’clock news last week, showing people what we do to fix wet basements," said Daniel Fitzgerald, Vice President of Marketing at Basement Systems Inc. "With a network of basement waterproofing contractors all across the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Ireland, we’re helping dry up hundreds of wet basements each week, making homeowners very happy!"
Once or maybe twice a year we see these heavy rains, where it may rain five to six inches in a single day. And maybe once every three years we see ten inches of rain in a three or four day period. These are the times when basements get wet.
"One thing I recommend is that prior to finishing a basement… have it waterproofed," said Bob Cherry, general manager of Quality 1st Basement Systems in New Jersey. "We see so many beautifully finished basements with two, three, even six inches of water in them from these uncommonly heavy rains. If you’re going to spend 10 or 20 thousand dollars to finish your basement, you should protect the investment."
When ground water is flooding the basement, seeping in between the basement floor and the walls, or through a wall or floor crack, Basement Systems’ dealers have foolproof solutions. The patented WaterGuard basement waterproofing system by Basement Systems has been installed in over 60,000 basements in four countries. Complete with a lifetime warranty, the one-of-a-kind WaterGuard system maintains a dry environment, enabling homeowners to use the space for anything they wish.
In many homes with a basement waterproofing system installed, sump pump failure becomes the number-one cause of flooding in the basement.
"We see sump pumps get overwhelmed in these times," said Rick Wentworth, owner of Basement Systems – The Floodbusters, the local dealership that covers Maryland and the greater Washington, DC area. "With all the recent rain and flooding, we’ve received many calls from people who had sump pumps that failed or couldn’t keep up with the water. We have since switched those with our sump pump systems, but it’s too bad that people have to have their stored valuables or finished basement ruined before they get the right system installed."
The tri-patented TripleSafe sump pump system quietly pumps water drained from the WaterGuard system out of a basement using three pumps for a complete solution. Protected by an airtight compartment, the TripleSafe pumps water in a variety of scenarios. Under typical water conditions the primary pump (a high quality cast-iron pump chosen from extensive testing as the most reliable) simply does its job. But when the heavy rains come, even if only once a year, and the primary pump fails to keep up with the volume of water seeping in, the second more powerful pump joins in, effectively pumping more than 6,200 gallons of water per hour (at an eight foot head) out of the basement. In the event of a power outage, the third, battery backup sump pump takes over. The TripleSafe sump pump system is also armed with the patented WaterWatch alarm that alerts the homeowner if the water level rises above the point where the pumps should engage.