Common Basement Waterproofing Questions

• I only get water in the base­ment on a heavy rain, should I be concerned?

  Yes it is a con­cern. Once water has found a way in, it will con­tin­ue to get worse over time.

• Should I build up dirt on the side that leaks?

  If a prob­lem already exists, build­ing up dirt is only a tem­po­rary solu­tion, and may cause addi­tion­al problems.

• How do I know which type of repair I need?

  It real­ly depends on the type of issue you are hav­ing. Not every leaky base­ment needs a one-size-fits-all solution.

• Where is the water com­ing from?

  Typ­i­cal­ly, below grade leaks can come into a base­ment one of three ways: through base­ments walls, from beneath the base­ment floor and/​or over-the-top of the foun­da­tion wall.

• Inside or out­side repair – which one is better?

  Either method is equal when the repair is exe­cut­ed prop­er­ly. It real­ly comes down to which method you as the cus­tomer are more com­fort­able with. How­ev­er, some­times spe­cif­ic types of leaks lend them­selves to par­tic­u­lar repairs.

• My base­ment is fin­ished. What do I do now?

  This is where you need a true pro­fes­sion­al to deter­mine the source of the leak. Most com­pa­nies thrive on a fin­ished base­ment so that they can sell an upgrad­ed sys­tem. This takes the guess work out of the eval­u­a­tion. With a fin­ished base­ment, there may be a pos­si­bil­i­ty that you may have to remove a sec­tion of the wall, but don’t do it until you need to. If there is any type of mold buildup on the wall, it is always a good idea to remove it.

• Why did my sump pump fail?

  Chances are that you had a mechan­i­cal fail­ure, pow­er fail­ure, or improp­er sized pump installed that result­ed in your pump not work­ing. Mechan­i­cal fail­ures are usu­al­ly due to age or wear and tear on the pump. Pow­er fail­ure is when the entire house los­es elec­tric­i­ty. Improp­er sized pumps can either cause the pump to run too often or not enough. It may be a good idea to install a bat­tery back­up pump or a sec­ondary pump as a sec­ondary option.

• My foun­da­tion crack has nev­er leaked before, why is it leak­ing now?

  Most foun­da­tion cracks will leak with time and pres­sure. Iden­ti­fy­ing the water source and elim­i­nat­ing the pres­sure will go a long way in main­tain­ing a dry basement.

• How much will the repair cost?

  Please remem­ber that the larg­er the area of repair, the high­er the cost. If we can iden­ti­fy a par­tic­u­lar loca­tion, a foun­da­tion crack for exam­ple, will cost sig­nif­i­cant­ly less. We pride our­selves on the real­is­tic indus­try costs and strive to stay with­in a family’s budget.

• Can you fix a crack that has been pre­vi­ous­ly repaired?

  Yes, we can. Some leak­ing cracks have been repaired many years ago and oth­ers more recent­ly. The injec­tion process usu­al­ly takes more time and is more labor inten­sive, but it can be done. How­ev­er, this time you may want to con­sid­er doing it from the outside.

• Do I have to do any­thing before you arrive?

  Not typ­i­cal­ly, but make sure you are pre­pared for a leak test to be per­formed with a gar­den hose. If we can find the source of the problem(s), we can give you a prop­er cost-effec­tive solution.

• What mate­ri­als do you use to fix the crack?

  We use two basic prod­ucts for injec­tion repair. One is epoxy for struc­tur­al appli­ca­tion and the oth­er is a Polyurethane resin for stan­dard leaks. Our out­side crack repairs use a com­bi­na­tion of Sodi­um Ben­tonite and a flex­i­ble membrane.

• Are cracks in base­ment floors a problem?

  Cracks in the floor are gen­er­al­ly not a prob­lem unless you see water bub­bling up through the cracks. Some­times water comes in around the wall and finds the floor crack.

• Will you remove and replace my fin­ished wall to repair the crack?

  For an addi­tion­al charge, we will remove dry­wall only.

• If I have mul­ti­ple cracks will the pric­ing change?

  Yes, we have a mul­ti­ple crack pric­ing tier. Cracks would need to be com­plet­ed at the same time.

• I have water com­ing up in the mid­dle of my floor, but the walls are dry. What is happening?

  This is referred to as ​“hydro­sta­t­ic pres­sure”. If the sump pump has­n’t failed, you may need to con­sid­er a drainage system.