The Best Foun­da­tion Water­proof­ing? 5 Things To Consider

Apr 25, 2016 • By Matthew Stock with Mike Likvan.

If you’ve noticed seep­age in your base­ment and are won­der­ing what is the best way to han­dle it, this arti­cle is for you. With so many options to pick from, it can be dif­fi­cult to sort through them to decide on the best foun­da­tion water­proof­ing method. This is why we are rec­om­mend­ing 5 things to con­sid­er before mak­ing a selec­tion. Keep these in mind and it should be clear which one is best for your indi­vid­ual situation. 

5 Con­sid­er­a­tions When Pick­ing Your Best Foun­da­tion Water­proof­ing Option

As you read through these, pri­or­i­tize how impor­tant each one is to you. This can help you nar­row down the options to the one you most prefer.

EFFECTIVENESS
This might seem unnec­es­sary to con­sid­er if you believe there are only cer­tain ways to do water­proof­ing, that all the ways are effec­tive, and every con­trac­tor uses the exact same prod­ucts and meth­ods. The truth is, many of the water­proof­ing busi­ness­es cur­rent­ly in Chicagoland are using meth­ods and prod­ucts we pio­neered, but that we’ve since dis­con­tin­ued because they didn’t con­sis­tent­ly work. Be sure you under­stand the method a con­trac­tor is propos­ing and ask for a dozen cus­tomer ref­er­ences you can con­tact who have used that method with sat­is­fac­to­ry results.

DISRUPTION
Much like mod­ern surgery, some of the best foun­da­tion water­proof­ing meth­ods avail­able today are less inva­sive than old­er meth­ods. For exam­ple, there are sev­er­al ways to fix a ver­ti­cal crack in your poured con­crete foun­da­tion if it’s hid­den behind a fin­ished base­ment. The least dis­rup­tive can be done on the out­side. It’s as sim­ple as dig­ging a hole no wider than a buck­et, using sodi­um ben­tonite and elas­tomer­ic mem­brane, then call­ing it a day. Why allow some com­pa­ny to dig up a much larg­er por­tion of your gar­den to fix that same crack? (Typ­i­cal­ly cracks aren’t much wider than a piece of string.) Make sure you under­stand what’s involved in a company’s pro­posed repair. It can save you a lot of headaches, incon­ve­nience and expense if you can avoid out­dat­ed and unnec­es­sar­i­ly dis­rup­tive home repair processes.

COST
Remem­ber what the world renown speak­er, Zig Ziglar says about cost ver­sus price. Price is what you pay ini­tial­ly, but cost is what you end up pay­ing in the long run. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant to remem­ber if you are tempt­ed to use a low priced com­pa­ny and neglect to check them out on Yelp, the Bet­ter Busi­ness Bureau or Google reviews. The ini­tial check you write might be low­er, but it won’t be the last one you’ll write if you have to put your home or gar­den back togeth­er or if you pur­chase a solu­tion from a com­pa­ny that requires reg­u­lar revis­its because their solu­tion isn’t main­te­nance free.

INSIDE OR OUTSIDE
Most foun­da­tion water­proof­ing repair meth­ods have a com­ple­ment. Whether it’s crack repair, cove joint seep­age or top of foun­da­tion prob­lems, there are ways to treat it from either the inside or the out­side. So which should you pick? A good rule of thumb is if you are water­proof­ing a fin­ished base­ment, fix­ing it from the out­side will usu­al­ly be bet­ter. And if the base­ment is emp­ty with bare walls but the out­side is beau­ti­ful­ly land­scaped, inside would be more desir­able. If you have cus­tom fin­ish­es in the base­ment and expen­sive land­scap­ing lin­ing your home, be aware you’re going to have a tough deci­sion pick­ing inside over the out­side, or visa versa.

FUTURE PLANS
How you plan to use your below ground space in the future is some­thing to con­sid­er when look­ing for water­proof­ing. You may not have a major seep­age prob­lem now, but if you have any size prob­lem, it indi­cates your foun­da­tion is sus­cep­ti­ble to move­ment and crack­ing. And once you cov­er over the walls with fram­ing, insu­la­tion, and dry­wall, the next time you’ll be able to dis­cov­er new move­ment and crack­ing is when it seeps through your nice base­ment fin­ish­es. If you are plan­ning to remod­el your base­ment, think seri­ous­ly about the ben­e­fits of pre­ven­ta­tive mea­sures to han­dle cur­rent and pos­si­ble future seep­age issues.

There you have the 5 things to con­sid­er when pick­ing your best foun­da­tion water­proof­ing option. And here’s num­ber 6. Con­sid­er con­tact­ing us when you’re weigh­ing your options. We will give you an hon­est assess­ment of the pros and cons for each option in light of your sit­u­a­tion. Togeth­er we can find the best foun­da­tion water­proof­ing solu­tion to fit your needs.

Tags: basement waterproofing solutions, foundation waterproofing, basement waterproofing facts, basement waterproofing chicago, chicago basement waterproofing

Previous Article | Learning Center Archive | Next Article