Flooded Crawlspace Linthicum Heights

While the Baltimore region doesn’t get the heavy snowfalls you see further north or the steady stream of tropical storms Florida experiences every year, Maryland does see enough rainfall every year to spark a few flood warnings. 2014 was an especially bad year for floods: in Linthicum Heights, the restaurant Snyder’s Willow Grove had to shut its doors for good after a three-quarter-century run thanks to flood damage. The BWI Airport down south also saw its long-term parking lots flood and damage many of the cars.

While Willow Grove had been hit by floods before thanks to its location just 300 yards away from the Patapsco River, BWI’s parking lots had never flooded before. The drainage may have failed or the floodwaters may have dug a new furrow that led to the parking lots, but as a result the airport staff was caught off guard and they only managed to save a few cars from the rising water.

There’s Always A First Time

You may not believe you’ll ever have to worry about a flooded crawlspace in Linthicum Heights or any other Baltimore Metro neighborhood, but the flooding of 2014 was a wakeup call to a lot of people. Throughout the region, constant heavy rains caught more than just BWI unprepared, and they closed more homes and businesses than just Snyder’s Willow Grove.

Floods have several different ways to cause damage to buildings. If floodwaters overflow a river’s banks and rise a few inches or more above the ground, then none of the buildings in the flood zone are safe from damage. Floods can soak through everything they touch, they can deposit sand and silt onto carpet and wood floors, and they can carry off objects, furniture, and even entire houses depending on the flood height and the strength of the current.

However, a flood can also work more subtly. Heavy rainfalls can increase the local water table level and saturate the soil all the way to the surface, and while these conditions present no danger of silt deposits or damage to the walls of a building, they can still harm the basement, crawlspace, or foundation.

A Flooded Crawlspace Is Bad News

A flooded crawlspace in Linthicum Heights (or anywhere else for that matter) invites all sorts of problems even if a flood leaves the rest of your home untouched. A water level which extends less than an inch above your foundation slab will still be able to thoroughly soak the walls of your crawlspace and weaken them to further water infiltration and to curious animals looking for a dark and quiet place to turn into their den. Rats and other rodents will then start chewing on insulation, plastic pipes, and anything else that isn’t metal.

All the water soaked into the walls and the floor of the crawlspace will also act as a breeding ground for smaller pests. No insect can live without water, but when water is present you don’t need much of it to support a large population of any number of insects. A flooded crawlspace in Linthicum Heights can support silverfish, mosquitoes, and termites, and it can also attract less common vermin like carpenter ants, centipedes, and the spiders that live on all of the above.

However, there’s one thing that’s guaranteed to show up and thrive no matter how much or how little water gets into your crawlspace: mold. Mold spores can live for a long time by simply floating through the air, which is why it’s safe to assume they’re already everywhere, but mold colonies can only grow where there’s enough moisture to support life.

Mold can grow on a variety of wood and stone surfaces, although different species specialize on each one. When certain species grow out of control, they release tons of spores which can lead to a musty smell and cold-like symptoms in humans.

But You Can Protect Against The Problem

Fixing a flooded crawlspace in Linthicum Heights or elsewhere in the Baltimore Metro can cost a surprising amount of money, and it likely won’t get rid of your infestation problems completely, either.

Fortunately, you can reduce the amount of damage a minor flood can cause by encapsulating your crawlspace, a service which AA Action Waterproofing provides along with foundation repair and mold remediation. Although you can’t do anything to protect your house from a serious flood, encapsulation can reduce the problems a minor flood causes, and as a bonus an encapsulated crawlspace can also serve as extra storage space.

If you live in or near the state of Maryland, you can contact AA Action Waterproofing at any time to set up a free consultation and written estimate, so feel free to see what we have to offer.