Elevate Your Home to Protect Against Floods
Do you live in an area where flooding is a constant occurrence? If yes, you need to know how to protect your home from flood damage. One of the most common retrofitting methods is home elevation or elevating a house to a required or desired Flood Protection Elevation. Flood is not only capable of destroying your safety but it will also compromise the structural integrity of your home once water gets in plus it’s going to negatively affect your finances when costly restoration repairs are necessary.
How Can You Protect Your Home Against Floods?
There are steps you need to take in order to protect our home from flood damage. The first step is to determine the probability of flood in your area and the ability of your house to withstand the flood.
Evaluate the Risk of Flooding in Your Location
You can refer to FEMA Flood Map Service to know the general flood risk in your location. All you need to do is to type in your zip code and click the “view web map” button to view the flood zones in your area. In there you will also find flood history reports. The flood maps will show you specific markings indicating flood risk areas as well as relevant structures including levees, dams and bridges. The following are some of the colored zones you’ll find in the flood map:
Blue Zones: The blue zones are areas that only have 1% annual-chance of flooding. According to FEMA, blue zones are areas that rarely experience flooding. In fact, if it’s ever going to flood it will only be once every 100 years. However, even though the figure seems negligible it is still important that you safeguard your home against flooding. You can’t take any chances even if your home is located within a blue zone.
Orange Zones: For structures located in orange zones there are 0.2% annual-chance of flooding. According to FEMA, orange zones are likely to experience major flooding at least once every 500 years. Basically, since orange zones are less likely to experience floods compared to blue zones flood insurance rates are markedly reduced. Nevertheless, you still need to ensure that your house is flood free by checking for leaks and carefully monitoring surface runoff following a storm.
Yellow Zones: The yellow zones are areas where flood risk is still undetermined. If you are planning to purchase a property that is located within a yellow zone make sure that you research the area thoroughly especially digging into its flood history. Ask those living within the area if they have experienced heaving flooding in the past and make sure that you ask the flood insurance agent if the house is strong enough to withstand flooding.
Blue with Red Stripes: The areas with blue and red stripes are considered regulatory floodways. These zones usually have a river and a floodplain to allow water to drain from nearby zones. Unfortunately, there are people who have built houses near these zones. This can be risky therefore; you need to take extra precautions to ensure that your home is protected during heavy floods.
After you have checked out the map in your area and after knowing your zone, look at the year when the map was created because sometimes these maps are outdated meaning the information, they show are no longer relevant. You can’t risk believing what you see on the map without verifying its accuracy. The last thing you’d want is thinking you are in a Blue Zone when you’re not.
Your next step is to have a discussion with your flood insurance agent so you will know the exact flood level of your property. Flood level refers to the height where floodwaters could rise during a storm. It is ideal that properties are built way above this level to protect it against flood damage. If you were to choose between a house that’s situated at the bottom of a valley and a property that’s built uphill, it is wise to choose the latter.
It’s also important that you study possible areas in your home where floodwaters might enter. You can do this by observing the surface runoff following a heavy rain or a snowmelt. Check if the water flows away or towards your home. Check your basement if you have one.
How Can You Protect Your Home Against Flooding?
If you live in a flood-prone area you should find ways to protect your home and one way of doing that is by elevating it. When it comes to house elevation make sure that you partner with a reliable company that offers excellent house raising services. You can’t entrust your home to amateurs. Elevating your house is one of the best decisions you can make for your million-dollar investment. The benefits are invaluable since you will not only be protected from flood elevating your home will also increase its value. Professional house-raising experts will make use of top-quality jacks to safely and securely raise your house and protect its foundation. While raising your house, these experts will study and evaluate your floor, reconnect all utilities and check the durability and strength of each column.
Elevating your home will make sure that floodwaters will not get in during heavy storms. You see, once floodwaters get in it can wreak havoc in your home causing property damage. Think about it, are you going to do a one-time investment and pay for a company that will safely elevate your home for years to come or are you going to wait until floodwaters ruin your precious property and just pay for costly restorations? If you are smart, you’ll choose the former.