Waterproofing basement walls should be a standard thing to do when finishing a basement. Most basements have high moisture levels, and much of the moisture enters via the basement walls. The most frequent causes of water build-up in basements are due to cracks, leaking windows and pipe condensation. Too much or prolonged water retention in the basement can cause a variety of problems.
Basement Wall Options
Among the available methods are:
- French Drains
- Hollow Baseboard Molding
- Sump Pumps
- Waterproofing
- Damp Proofing
French Drains – An exterior system running the perimeter or partial perimeter of your house for heavy rain run off drainage, or an interior system if water is coming into your basement through the floors or cove between the floor and the wall. A trench is dug round the inside perimeter of the wet basement floor. A perforated plastic drain tile pipe is installed and surrounded by gravel. When trying to recement the floor over a French drain system, some repair and waterproofing contractors leave a gap that can be one to two inches in the floor to allow the web wall seppage to dair below the floor. A French drain usually connects to a sump pump.
what might be the possible use of the Hollow Baseboard Molding.is it good enough to adhered or joint for epoxy use? The hollow molding collects wet wall seepage and water rising at the cove area. More often than not, linked to a sump pump.
Sump Pumps – Installed in a plastic or fiberglass tank below the wet basement floor. Sump pumps can collect underground water through perforations in the sump well in the immediate vicinity of the sump pump. Sump pumps have many uses such as floor drainage and to drain underground drain pipes.
What are the varieties that should be applied in all basement waterproofing?
The fact is that even with a good drainage system there is no surety of the basement walls remaining dry. 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.
Damp proofing means what?
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.
Damp proofing products are typically a tar based material in a solvent base. They are cheap to apply but their effectiveness is limited because they are only to designed to ‘retard’ moisture penetration, not prevent it. The biggest problem is that, because this material becomes brittle, hairline cracks will appear as the foundation settles. Since the tar based coating does not stretch to cover these cracks, water will seep into the basement.
Find out the meaning of waterproofing.
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 products contain rubber which provides superior waterproofing protection and allows the product to remain flexible even when it dries. This flexibility allows the waterproofing membrane to stretch as the foundation settles and bridge small hairline settlement cracks that can occur in the concrete or block.
Application instructions
Clearly waterproofing is a better option and since there is not a huge price difference between that and damp proofing, it seems a more sensible long term choice, especially when it often has a 25 to 30-year guarantee.
Builders, many times in the past, paid little attention to waterproofing basement walls. At this point you have the opportunity to put this situation right with convenient products that have easy to follow instructions The products available in the market are easy to apply and mostly they are do it yourself types. These are available in 5 gallon pails or 55 gallon drums, as an example, and are ready for use without heat or any specialized equipment – if you can use a brush or a roller, you can use these. You can also utilize a commercially available airless sprayer that can be rented on a daily basis. An average size basement of approximately 1,000 square feet can easily be waterproofed by a couple of people using a roller in 2-3 hours. So get started and begin to enjoy your basement space without the dampness.
- Learn About Everything...