Before we get into the technical aspects, let me ask you this: how much standing water would it take to damage a finished basement? Have a go at guessing. The majority of people say a foot, while others think six inches. The actual figure, which continues to surprise people, even some who have resided in this area their entire lives, is in fact much smaller than that.
A distance of half an inch is usually sufficient—if it stays for a couple of days—to travel up through the carpet padding, cause the baseboards to swell, and begin to soften the paper backing of the drywall. Having carried out this type of work in and around Kennesaw and Acworth for so long, I know that homeowners seldom imagine that such minor damage could cause any real harm. But water doesn’t mind drama; it only needs time and a surface to move through.
A Story Worth Telling Around the Fire
A few years ago, before I worked on this full-time, one of my neighbors had a water heater fail silently in the utility closet during a long weekend while the family was at Lake Allatoon. Nobody was there to notice it. On Monday, three-quarters of an inch of water had covered most of the basement floor. It was nothing spectacular, and there was no sign of flooding from the outside. However, when they finally got around to calling someone, the baseboards were already swollen, and a corner of the carpet near the water heater had begun to give off that characteristic sour odor.
The explanation I give people when they ask why we take even minor water incidents seriously is that it’s not a matter of the amount of water present at the time; it’s about what happens in the days that follow, even when no one is looking.
Why This Matters More Here Than Some Other Places
The clay soil found in Georgia together with our numerous trees result in a certain type of risk: the roots gradually move towards the water lines over time, the foundations shift a bit due to the wet and dry cycles of the clay, and in many of the houses in the area crawl spaces or finished basements were built decades ago when it wasn’t much thought about the use of vapor barriers or moisture control. It doesn’t follow that disaster is certain, merely that the margin for error is a bit narrower than in some other areas, and that if small leaks go unnoticed, they have a better chance of developing into larger ones.
What We Actually Look For when it comes to Water Damage
When our crew gets called out, whether it’s a water heater failure, a slow leak under a sink, or stormwater that found its way in through a foundation crack, we’re not just mopping up what’s visible. We check moisture levels inside the walls, under the flooring, and in the framing itself, because that’s where the real damage tends to hide. You can see photos of past jobs and read what neighbors have said about the process on our Google Business Profile. It’s a good way to get a feel for what to expect before you ever need to call.
A Little Homework for Your Own House
When you’re next in your basement or crawl space, stop for a moment and take a proper look around. Rather than just glancing at it as you go to pick up a box of decorations, take the time to actually examine it. Look behind the water heater, along the underside of the drywall, and near any exposed pipes. If anything seems damp when it shouldn’t, or you pick up a musty smell that wasn’t there last season, it’s worth keeping an eye on it before it becomes a problem it doesn’t need to be.
You don’t need a hurricane or a burst pipe dumping water all over the room to cause real damage; sometimes all it takes is a quiet weekend and a small amount of water that no one was looking at.
If You’re Not Sure, That’s Reason Enough to Call
If you’ve got even a little bit of standing water, a damp spot that won’t go away, or just a feeling that something isn’t right down in the basement, reach out to AdvantaClean of Kennesaw at (470) 887-9171. We’re around Kennesaw, Acworth, and Cartersville any hour of the day, and honestly, we’d rather check it out and find nothing than have you discover the hard way that half an inch turned into something much bigger.
AdvantaClean of Kennesaw, GA
(470) 887-9171
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