Waterproofing basement walls should be a standard thing to do when finishing a basement. Moisture entering through the walls of the basement  is the main reason that area of your house is more damp than the rest of the house. 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

There are numerous ways of waterproofing basement walls and these include:

- French Drains
- Hollow Baseboard Molding
- Sump Pumps
- Waterproofing
- Damp Proofing

French Drains

You have many choices when it comes to waterproofing basement walls, however to get your best results you first need to figure out exactly how and where your water is coming from, be it through the walls from freeze thaw cycles or heavy rains and run off, or is it coming from an underground spring, or do you simply have a damp or humid basement before you choose your remedy.

Whilst the basement floor is still wet, dig a trench around its inside perimeter. A perforated plastic drain tile pipe is installed and surrounded by gravel. Some wet basement waterproofing and repair contractors re-cement the floor over the French drain system leaving a 1 inch to 2 inch gap in the floor along the walls to allow the web wall seepage to drain below the floor into the French drain system. A drain that connects to a sump pump is usually  the French type.

Hollow Baseboard Molding and Cove Systems

System for installing a hollow baseboard channel use a waterprof-of epoxy for the bonding to the floor and joint. This empty molding will gather wet wall seepage as well as fluid which rises at the cove region. Usually connected 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.

Wall Sealers

What are the varieties that should be applied in all basement waterproofing?

The truth is even with a good drainage system, it can’t assure a dry basement wall. We need to evaluate the most economical method to stop moisture from getting in the basement walls and this may be damp proofing and waterproofing.

Damp proofing means what?

Proofing products that are moist are usually made of tar 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 main problem is that it becomes brittle once it cures and as the foundation settles and hairline cracks appear, the tar based coating will not stretch to bridge the cracks and this allows moisture to penetrate into the basement.

What is Waterproofing?

Products used for waterproofing underground areas, such as a basement, are only designed to prevent water from penetrating the walls especially after heavy rains or spring thaws; but, if you have underground water from a source such as a spring you may need to install a sump pump to prevent water from entering your basement from under the floor.  Advanced Waterproofing Technologies provides supieor waterproofing protection as the products contain rubber and it allows flexibility when it dries.  How you will stretch the foundation to settle the flexibility of waterproofing

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.

In the earlier days builders often did not consider waterproofing the basement walls as important. At this point you have the opportunity to put this situation right with convenient products that have easy to follow instructions Most of the products are safe and easy to apply by the do-it-yourselfer.  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 even use a commercial airless sprayer which can be rented by the day.  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 to it and start enjoying all that space without the damp.

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