Before you hire a company to fix your wet or leaky basement make sure you get more than one quote before signing any contract or agreeing to any work done to your house. There are many reputable companies that will come to your home and offer you a reasonable quote to fix your basement, and they will explain the issues and maybe the procedure they will do to fix your home. The most important thing to remember is that you have to take care of a leaky basement , your health and the health of those you love can be jeopardize by mildew and other allergens found in your wet basement.
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Hello again. Recently had a company come over and give an estimate on waterproofing our basement. Hit us to the tune of 23,000$ I said hell no. He wanted to install a 2nd sump pit and do an interior/exterior perimeter drain. Now I only have one wall causing issues. I asked why we can’t just do an interior drain on that one wall to relieve pressure. This would be convenient because my sump put is along this wall. The way I see it we could just add the interior drain and dump into our existing pit. I need to also do some slight regrading to exterior of that wall and I want to add a “French drain” along that problem wall about 3′ down against the wall itself. I figure some pipe with holes drilled and back filled with epa gravel will catch that surface water. Can anyone tell me if they have ever heard of someone doing an interior footer drain on just one wall to relieve that pressure.
3/4 of our basement is finished so we decided to remove a section of drywall and paneling for the two other corners of the basement. After doing so both corners looked dry as a bone and didn’t seem to have any issues.
House Remedies: Tackle basement mustiness one step at a time
Q.: We have a walkout basement. The basement is more than musty smelling. We do use air conditioning, but I think we need more help. Can you help?
A.: There are several ways to reduce the musty smell in a basement, although it depends on your house’s conditions and the level of intervention you wish to do. Here are some things to consider:
Runoff, gutters and downspouts
The best way to reduce moisture quickly, cheaply, and without using electrical appliances is good water management. The house’s grounds should be sloped away from the foundation. Be sure all of the downspout bottoms are clear and dispensing water after the ground starts to slope away. There are downspout extensions that help move the water away. Sometimes it takes a bit of experimentation.
Top tips to optimally use conventional waterproofing techniques
Waterproofing of building to prevent the ingress of water is an activity, which, perhaps is practiced in one form or the other, ever since the first building was built on earth. The methodology has been changing with the changes in the architectural designs and with the availability different building materials in construction.
In the initial stages when stone was the main building construction material placed in position with mud or lime mortar the emphasis used to be to make the construction in such a way that the rainwater does not collect on the roofs. Hence old architecture relied mainly on dome structures or slanting roofs. The slow speed of such construction and unaffordability of common man to build such structures for their own dwelling, made constant evolution and development in the construction material technology.
With these developments the concepts of waterproofing also changed. Now in present day construction wherein the ordinary portland cement and its blends with puzzolonic and slag materials has come to stay a lot of compatible alternatives are available for a builder to choose from various waterproofing systems. Some systems are old and conventional but still practiced successfully and some are modern systems designed taking the material and structural behaviour into consideration.
