With the forecast predicting 4 more days of rain in Arlington, it may be a good time to revisit some things you should be doing to protect your home. If you own a single family home or a townhouse, make sure you do the following:
1. Clean your gutters.
Leaves, branches, birds, other animals, debris, etc. will all accumulate in your gutters if you don’t regularly clean them. Grab a ladder, and get in there! Leaving your gutters clogged can cause a leaky roof, rotting wood trim, water into the foundation of your home, and so many other issues. The easy solution is to just clean them!
2. Route your downspouts away from the house.
Those sometimes ugly black rubber hoses attached to your downspouts are actually saving your investment. Make sure they’re rerouted away from the house and the foundation, otherwise you could be pouring all of that rain water into basement.
3. Check your sump pumps.
A sump pump is used to remove water that has accumulated in a “hole”, commonly found in the basements of homes. If a waterproofing system has been installed, it will drain here and then be pushed to the house. Basically if water is found in the basement, the sump pump automatically detects this and starts pumping the water out of the basement. Make sure yours works, just in case.