Wet or flooded basement? Ryan Peterson has some tips on drying it out in this week's Your Home.

There is always one big problem with heavy snowfall this late in the season: It's very wet and it melts quickly. Translation? Flooded basements.

"When the basement is wet, you lose, if it's a single story home, you lose half of the square footage of your house. You can't store things effectively without them getting damaged or ruined," said expert Kevin Koval.

Having your home outfitted with a dry basement system isn't cheap, but it's going to save you even more in the long run.

"If you keep your basement wet, instead of fixing it and making it dry, you can get rot in the beams upstairs. It can rust out your furnace, your water heater. It also makes your house harder to heat and cool when the air is wet," said Koval.

The overhaul is extensive. Between the drainage and the vapor barrier installed on the walls, Koval installs three pumps to ensure your basement stays dry.

"It's called the triple safe system. It has a primary pump that's at the lowest point, that's the workhorse. We have a second pump set at a higher level so that way, if you have a high volume of water coming in all at once, the water will be taken by the second pump and taken out through a separate pipe," Koval said." If you have a power outage, we have a third pump that's a battery back-up system powered by a dry-cell battery. That'll pump 12,000 gallons of water on one charge."

It may look like a lot of work and it is, but installing a system like this, in the end, it's going to pay off. Should you choose to sell your home, it's going to add considerable value come re-sale time.

"Mold is a big thing nowadays in real estate. Keeping your basement dry with these systems can eliminate that. It also allows you to finish your basement off down the road, which can add value to the property. It can be the difference between selling your house and not selling your house," said Bruce Dedon with Coldwell Banker.

"We take a wet basement and get it carpenter ready so it can be effectively finished without damaging it in the future," said Koval.

The system being installed in was expensive. Koval said if you're building a new home, consider putting a dry basement system in at the start. It'll save you up to half the cost by eliminating the excavation work.