Families that choose to finish their basement to acquire the needed extra space, have to first make sure the basement is dry and will stay dry for the foreseeable future. Remodeling or finishing the basement to make room for a man cave or a children’s play room requires to have a basement that is waterproofed. If your basement is home to your washer and dryer, or any other home appliance, keeping them in a basement that is dry will assure you of their long life, and hopefully maintenance free due to the humidity in the basement. For more about this and other topics, follow the links below.
Heart of the Home: Keeping your basement dry
With spring right around the corner, the timing seemed to be perfect when I heard from the folks at U.S. Waterproofing, a basement waterproofing service company.
“We get the most calls in the spring, when people sell their home or from people who just bought one,” said Matt Stock, president of U.S. Waterproofing. “It’s those calls from buyers — who have a surprise, undisclosed and expensive basement leak — that break our hearts. We know they weren’t prepared for that kind of expense upon moving into their new home.”
A third-generation family member in the basement waterproofing business, Stock said he began assisting his family in all-things-basements when he was 12.
In 2012, Stock launched the U.S. Waterproofing Learning Center, to educate homeowners, real estate agents, home inspectors and others concerned with home improvement, waterproofing, and repair. Below, he dishes out some good, sound advice.
Homeowner wants to turn basement into man cave
Ravenna, Brimfield, Suffield, Randolph, Rootstown, Streetsboro, Atwater, Deerfield, Aurora, Freedom, Hiram, Edinburg, Palmyra, Shalersville, Windham, Garrettsville, Mantua
Dear Jerry: Our house is newly built in Webster-Penfield in 2016. The basement cinder block walls have dimple board on the outside that is somehow tied in with the French drain — whatever that is……
I always recommend that folks live in a house at least a year prior to finishing a basement, mostly to monitor potential water issues. Given what you’ve said about waterproofing, there may be adequate water protection on the exterior. If you’ve had no water issues to date, I think you can continue with your project.
First I would remove the existing insulation. If there is separate joist or rim band insulation, that’s fine. If not, I’d add that material now. Next, I’d apply a waterproofing such as Drylok on the concrete blocks, following directions and being careful not to let the masonry paint get on the floor or seep into the trough around the perimeter of the slab. A roll of felt paper, used as floor protection, will be helpful here. Any debris in the trench should be removed.
Normally, I would recommend drilling weep holes in the block cavities closest to the floor. That way, any water that makes its way onto the walls from the exterior can drain out of the blocks and into the trench. You might check with your builder to find out exactly what kind of waterproofing and drainage systems were done to the basement during construction. If he or she deems this adequate, then you may want to omit the weep holes.
With these tips from the happy homeowner playbook, create the ideal setting for that top-rated washer/dryer pair from CR’s tests
Carrying loads of dirty laundry from the bedroom down to the basement or utility room is a cumbersome task at best. So if your washer and dryer are still parked in one of those far-away spaces, it’s time to bring them out of the shadows and into your main living area.
In addition to making life more convenient, the move could pay for itself when you sell your home. In a 2017 survey of homebuyers by the National Association of Home Builders, a dedicated laundry room was No. 1 on the list of most desired home features, considered essential or desirable by 90 percent of respondents. It’s also high on the must-haves for millennials, who now represent the largest home-buying cohort, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Home remodelers are hot on the laundry room trend as well. “When the house can support it, what’s not to like about a separate laundry room?” says Dale Contant, president of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry and owner of Atlanta Design & Build, a residential remodeling firm based in Marietta, Ga.
