BASEMENT WATERPROOFING
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Basement Waterproofing Blues and Hues
Basement Waterproofing! Worse than the heartbreak of psoriasis, smellier than halitosis and more unsightly than "ring around the collar." Maybe you can tell that I haven't watched much television for a while (barely know how to operate the remote), but I do know what worries home owners and buyers. If there's brown, green or black on the basement foundation walls, it's one of the first concerns I hear about.
Basement water can significantly affect your enjoyment and use of a home; it can create very costly problems, reduce the value of a home and even have an impact on your health. So buyer and owner concern about moisture is anything but frivolous.
In my experience, fortunately, over 50% of water problems are the result of neglected gutters and downspouts. Another 40% of the problems are due to improper grading that is usually remedied very easily with a shovel and some grass seed. A very small percentage of moisture problems are the result of a high water table.
Two recent basement waterproofing experiences should serve to illustrate what I mean by neglect. At one home after an overnight rain, a large, deep puddle appeared on the floor around the oil tank. The owner made various apologies and excuses, but the culprit was the fallen downspout extension pipe, and I offered to prove it. The owner held a hose at the spot where the roof water was deposited by the front downspout. In less than a minute, water starting squirting through the foundation wall to replenish the puddle. The owner reconnected the elbow and downspout extension and the problem was (temporarily) solved.
In another home without gutters, the owner noted with dismay how even the lightest rain yielded a damp spot on the floor under the water main penetration at the foundation. The grading at the front of the house was incorrect, towards the foundation. The owner ran water from the garden hose, and I went downstairs to see if water appeared. As soon as I entered, I could see water on the floor.
An obvious clue to the source of moisture is symmetrical discoloration or peeling in the corner of a foundation, almost always the sign of inadequate dispersal of roof water. The pattern is narrow at the top and widens towards the floor. Often, simply adding a downspout elbow and splash-block will resolve this type of "basement waterproofing" problem.
Homes that have major water problems in winter during heavy rain when the ground is frozen are most often on slopes and have water penetration on the side of the house facing uphill. This occurs because even in the coldest winter, the soil around the foundation is thawed and porous because of the heat loss from the basement. Everywhere else, the ground is frozen and impermeable; water from the hill flows down the surface and sinks into the soil around the foundation. Installing a barrier under the soil tarred to the house, but pitched away from it, may solve this type of leakage.
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