When you are finishing a basement, waterproofing basement walls is a useful thing to do. Moisture entering through the walls of the basement is the main reason that area of your house is more damp than the rest of the house. Cracks, leaking windows and pipe condensation are probably the most common reasons basements have water build-up problems. You will run into all kinds of issues if you allow too much water retention or allow it to stay for too long.
Basement Wall Options
There are numerous ways of waterproofing basement walls and these include:
- French Drains
- Hollow Baseboard Molding
- Sump Pumps
- Waterproofing
- Damp Proofing
French Drains
Interior drainage systems installed below the wet basement floor to collect underground water and wet wall seepage.
Whilst the basement floor is still wet, dig a trench around its inside perimeter. First you need to position a plastic drain pipe, ready perforated, and then make sure that it is surrounded by gravel or similar The floor over the French drain system is sometimes re-cemented by repair and wet basement waterproofing contractors. A gap is left of between one and two inches in the floor, along the walls, which lets the web wall seepage drain below floor-level into the drain system. Sump pumps are used in French drainage systems.
Hollow Baseboard Molding and Cove Systems
System for installing a hollow baseboard channel use a waterprof-of epoxy for the bonding to the floor and joint. This empty molding will gather wet wall seepage as well as fluid which rises at the cove region. In most cases linked to the sump pump.
Sump Pumps
Installed in a plastic or fiberglass tank below the wet basement floor. In order to collect underground water one case install a device known as a sump pump. This should solve your underground water problems! A good way of draining excess water from a basement floor or from any underground drainage pipes that you might have is to utilise a sump pump.
Wall Sealers
Varieties include spray applied basement wall sealers, brush or roller applied basement waterproofing sealers, or panel type basement waterproofing sealers for wet basement walls.
In reality a good drainage system cannot guarantee dry basement walls. Lets look at damp proofing and waterproofing as these are the cheapest and easiest methods of stopping moisture getting into your basement through the walls.
You may be asking yourself what is involved in damp proofing your basement and the best example I can give of damp proofing would be to think of a castle with a moat and think about how to keep the water away from this castle; first you build the permiable pallette layer where you want the castle floor, then you would place a solid layer over that, then you would leave a vent space and lay your foundation; as for your walls, you would build your walls, then do your solid layer and then your permiable layer, and now you have damp proofed your castle.
Proofing products that are moist are usually made of tar in a solvent base. Application is inexpensive but efficiency is limited since they are manufactured to retard and not to prevent moisture penetration. The main problem is that it becomes brittle once it cures and as the foundation settles and hairline cracks appear, the tar based coating will not stretch to bridge the cracks and this allows moisture to penetrate into the basement.
Does waterproofing may help a lot in protecting basement walls?
Waterproofing products are designed to ‘prevent’ water penetration even under wet conditions such as hydrostatic pressure in the soil after heavy rain or spring thaws. Advanced Waterproofing Technologies provides supieor waterproofing protection as the products contain rubber and it allows flexibility when it dries. How you will stretch the foundation to settle the flexibility of waterproofing
How to Apply:
There is not much price difference between waterproofing and damp proofing which show that waterproofing as the right alternative considering that oftentimes it goes with a 25 to 30-year guarantee
In the earlier days builders often did not consider waterproofing the basement walls as important. So now is your chance to rectify that with simple-to-use products. Even if you are not a professional you will find that our products are easily applied and not harmful. Available even in 5 gallon pails or 55 gallon drums, they are ready for use and do not require heating or other application equipment, just the use of a brush or roller. You can even use a commercial airless sprayer which can be rented by the day. In 2 or 3 hours, a couple people using rollers can waterproof an average-size basement (about 1,000 square feet) without difficulty. So get started and begin to enjoy your basement space without the dampness.
