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BASEMENT WATERPROOFING
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Basement Waterproofing: The importance of a proper grade
There is much you can do to resolve your own basement waterproofing problems before hiring a contractor, and the grade around your home is a good place to start.
Proper grading around your house is critical in basement waterproofing. Without a proper grade, you are unlikely to resolve your damp basement problems.
Grading of your land away from the foundation is very important. You need to be sure that the ground slopes away from your home and foundation, so that surface water will run away from your home, and not affect your basement or foundation. That means you need to go out there and look - if it doesn't appear to be sloping at least slightly away, you should fix it.
The surface and ground should slope away from the house with a pitch consistent with conditions in your area. How much your land should slope away from your home and foundation will largely depend on the type of soil you have, the effectiveness of your gutters and downspouts, amount of shading and shrubbery around the house, and a host of other variables. Your local BasementDepot Basement Waterproofing Contractor can help you determine this.
In order to create the proper grading and land pitch, you may need to have dirt brought in to raise the grade nearer your foundation. Do not allow the dirt to touch wood, or go above the sill plate. Alternately, you may be able to lower the land away from the foundation to create the necessary slope to keep water away from the foundation.
Slope the ground away from the outside foundation by whatever method best suits your home and terrain. Extend the slope for at least ten feet. Seed it with a good lawn grass. Sodding is a common practice that prevents washing away of newly graded areas during heavy rains.
If you have a large area of land that slopes toward the house, surface drainage may need to be intercepted and redirected some distance from the house. Dig a shallow, half-round drainage ditch or depression designed to route the water around the house. Sod the ditch or plant grass in it. If a shallow ditch is objectionable, drainage tiles, with one or more catch basins at low spots, can be installed.
Without proper grading and surface water control, all other efforts to prevent basement wetness will likely be futile.
Basement Waterproofing and Rain
Most often than not, a wet or damp basement is directly or indirectly associated with rainfall. Although there are a many ways in which water can get into your home, the most common is the result of rainwater.
Rainwater may be inadvertently channeled into fill areas surrounding your home. Improperly maintained gutters and downspouts often compound the problem and increase water around the foundation. As the water saturates the soil, it makes its way down the outside surface of the foundation, searching for the path of least resistance.
If a crack in your foundation exists, the water comes in. Even in the absence of an actual foundation crack, because of the porous nature of concrete, moisture can be absorbed right through the wall, causing the wall to sweat and bleed. With a block wall foundation, a crack in a mortar joint will allow water to enter the cavities of the blocks, eventually building up to a level where it can leak into your basement. Water often becomes trapped inside these blocks and may produce a musty odor, even in the absence of visible dampness or wetness.
Since no watertight seal exists between your foundation walls and the footing, water can easily migrate through this area and flow up through the space between the wall and floor, ending up in your basement. This is the most common source of leakage. If the water table rises above your floor, the water will exert pressure on the floor, and seep up through floor cracks. If the floor has no cracks and is otherwise sound, and can withstand the rising water pressure, the water may still come up through the space between the wall and the floor, again causing leakage.
The key to resolving a basement waterproofing problem related to rainwater is to direct water away from your foundation. This can be done by a variety of simple approaches including:
Other times, a more serious problem may exist which requires the services of a professional basement waterproofing contractor and foundation specialist.
Basement Waterproofing and Snow
Rainwater (snow) during the winter creates it's own problems for basements. When the ground is frozen and snow melts, the run-off sometimes has no where to go except toward your foundation where it can seep into the ground and into the cracks and fissures of the walls. Gutters and downspouts can freeze resulting in melting snow and water running over the gutters. Good grading is necessary to keep melting snow away from the foundation. De-icing cables near the edge of the roof and in the gutters and downspouts can prevent ice build up. Do not pile snow against the house.
Make sure sump pump discharges do not have any low spots where water can collect and freeze. A frozen discharge pipe can create basement flooding.
If you require more information, check our Help Forum and/or our Knowledgebase for additional information.
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