It's Time to Protect Your Home Before the Heavy Rainfall Season
With the return of the spring season and the hotter weather, there is an increased risk of heavy rainstorms in the Montreal region. Such weather events can send large volumes of water into the sewer systems in a short amount of time, potentially overloading the network and causing backups. Media reports from past years have shown that this type of situation can affect not only the Town of Mount Royal but also many neighborhoods across Montreal and surrounding communities.
Since we have to adapt to these new climatic realities, there's still time to call on an experienced professional plumber who is a member of the Corporation des maîtres mécaniciens en tuyauterie du Québec (CMMTQ), to leave nothing to chance and have your installations checked to effectively protect your home.
Reminder of Best Practices:
In addition to regularly inspecting your foundation for cracks, here are some individual preventive measures homeowners should take to avoid basement water damage:
- Install and maintain a check valve on all secondary connections;
- Ensure that gutters are not connected to the foundation drain (French drain);
- Ensure adequate drainage to keep surface water away from your property;
- Limit impervious surfaces on your property;
- Clean and inspect your sump pump regularly.
In addition, if you have a downhill driveway, you may want to consider redesigning it and, if necessary, adding a rise at the top of the driveway. This will help and act as a barrier against run-off water.
For its part, the Town is taking short-, medium- and long-term measures to strengthen our community's resilience in the face of these events. In addition to regular maintenance of sewer pipes, TMR is continuing to calibrate the hydraulic model to better understand the network's current capacity. It is also preparing a Master Plan for stormwater management, which will include analysis of innovative solutions and pilot projects. This plan is scheduled for submission in June, and will serve as the basis for future infrastructure work. The Town is also continuing its discussions with Montreal regarding the agglomeration network into which the water from Mount Royal is discharged. Finally, new urban planning regulations are planned to improve runoff management on private property.
For more information, visit the Sewer and aqueduct page on the Town's website. You can also consult the detailed list of preventive measures on the city's website to make sure your home is weather-ready.
Information:
You can also consult the sewers and water mains page of the website.
