'Immediacy is the key': Tips to protect your home as snow starts to melt

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The large piles of snow combined with the warming temperatures could be a bad mix for your basement. 

"We have all of this stuff and it has to go somewhere," said Chris Mancuso with Accurate Basement Repair. 

No one wants that somewhere to be their basement. 

"Immediacy is the key," said Mancuso. 

He says to first check your sump pump. If it's not working, he says to get it fixed immediately. 

"You need to get that fixed immediately because if your sump pump can’t throw the water away, it will flood your basement," he said. 

Next, he says, check downspouts. 

"If they look frozen, get ice melt pucks. You can throw them up on the roof, get them into that gutter, try to get that snow to melt so it has somewhere to go over the next few days," he said. 

He also suggests using a roof rake to remove snow from the roof and shoveling snow away from the house. 

"That would be really important, that would be vital," he said. 

"Spring flood risk across southern Wisconsin is above average and that's largely due to the deep snow pack that we have, because eventually all that snow's going to melt," said Sarah Marquardt, service hydrologist with the National Weather Service. 

She says right now they're watching the March timeframe, but rivers may rise slightly in the next week. 

"Right now we're looking at a slow melt with some of the snow and river rises over the next week, but we really need to pay attention to the March timeframe and we really need to look for -- a big factor going forward is a big warm up, which may cause a rapid snow melt."