Oh, the weather outside is frightful...but if you're not careful, when all that snow thaws and turns into water, it can flood and severely damage your property. Costing thousands of dollars each year in damages, flooding can render your home and possessions dirty, diseased, and sometimes even unsalvageable. To avoid this headache and keep your home and hearth safe even while the snowdrifts thaw, you may want to employ some of these tactics for protecting against water damage.

Tip #1: Build (and Keep Up) A Firm Foundation

When you're out getting all that snow off your lawn, take a moment to inspect your home's foundation. With time and weather, your foundation can sometimes crack and leak, which will leave your home exposed when the floodwater starts to rise. Check your walls with a level, and look for bulges or curves that might indicate that all is not well. If the crack is less than a quarter of an inch wide, just patch it with some concrete waterproofing paint, but mark the spot so you can keep an eye on it.

On the rare chance that the crack is wider than that, call in a professional -- large foundation cracks can be nasty and complicated to fix, so you'll definitely want someone who knows what they're doing.

Tip #2: Check the Roof

Once you've taken care of the threat of flooding from below, it's time to turn your attention to the sky. Your roof should be checked and (if needed) repaired every couple of years, so while you're replacing shingles, think about adding a rubber underlay. It'll sit neatly underneath your shingles, but will help protect your roof against water leaking through. 

The cost might seem a bit exorbitant, but it's much cheaper to install a rubber underlay now than to pay for everything that got damaged because you didn't install one.

Tip #3: Install French Drains

Those nice French doors leading out to the patio help inundate your house with sun, but French drains can do even more for protecting your home against flooding. French drains help drain the water from your yard, where it can sit and eventually leak into your house, out to the street, or a dry well, or any number of other places.

At about 10 dollars per foot of the piping that moves the water, French drains are an almost impossibly good deal for the flood-aware homeowner.

If your home does suffer water damage, contact Southwest Restoration Inc. or a similar company.