Month: March 2021

If your basement walls have cracks in them, it’s not unusual for them to be leaking water. However, even small amounts, dripping in when it rains, can cause big problems down the line. Mold, bacteria, and pests are just some of the results of leaking basement walls. So, what can you use to repair basement leaking? The answer may not be as simple as you hoped.

Find the Source

The first thing to do is find the source of the leaking. If you’re looking for repair solutions, you probably already know where the water is coming from. If a basement window isn’t doing a great job of keeping out water, you likely need some window well waterproofing. This process is fairly simple. We install something you could call a tray, which catches any water collecting in the window well. The water is then redirected away from the house.

However, if your basement leaking is caused by cracked basement walls, there’s a bit more to be done.

Don’t Fill Cracks

What most people end up looking for when trying to DIY repair basement leaking is something to fill in the cracks in their walls. However, you should never try to fill in basement wall cracks from the inside. 

Because water leaks in from the outside, filling the cracks from the inside ends up trapping water within the walls. The water will then expand and contract with the weather. This will cause a lot more damage to your walls than if you’d left them.

Determine Severity

The next step is figuring out how severe the issue is. During the worst weather of the year, is the leaking simply causing moisture on the inside of the walls, or is it running down and pooling on the floor? If the worst the weather can do is give you some moisture on your interior walls, you likely just need damp proofing. However, if water is coming in enough to pool, even in tiny rivulettes or puddles, you’ll want to go the waterproofing route. 

Both methods involve accessing the basement walls from the outside, which means digging a trench along the side of the house. However, they each offer a different level of protection.

Basement Damp Proofing

When damp proofing, the real culprit is the cracks in the wall, allowing regular ground moisture in. So, when you hire POM Waterproofing to damp proof your basement walls, we fix cracks from the outside and then coat the exterior of your basement walls. The crack repair will build the integrity of the walls back up while the coating will keep moisture from getting in or forming new ones. 

Basement Waterproofing

With basement waterproofing, the culprit is the amount of water trying to get at your basement walls. A high level of ground water will cause damage to otherwise intact walls. This happens when rain collects along the basement wall and erodes the stone.

When we waterproof your basement walls, we do the same process as damp proofing, but take it a step further. Once the wall has been smoothed and coated, we apply a solid membrane and adhere it to the wall. This membrane provides a solid barrier between ground water and your basement. Then, we install a track that collects and redirects ground water that finds its way to the membrane. The water will then be redirected away from the house, ensuring it doesn’t just pool against the membrane.

Give us a call today if you’re interested in protecting your home from invasive water. 

A damaged foundation is bad news for anyone. Your home’s foundation is what keeps it “alive.” Without it, the rest of the structure would quickly fall victim to shifting ground and instability, making the building dangerous to live in. So, how do you know if your foundation is suffering? What happens if it is? Can you repair a damaged foundation? POM Waterproofing has answers to all of your questions and more. Let’s take a look!

Is My Foundation Damaged?

The first step to anything foundation related is knowing if it’s damaged to begin with. There are obvious warning signs from both inside and outside of a building.

Signs from the interior include:

• Cracks in your sheetrock/drywall
  (Not your paint. Old paint get’s little cracks in it over time and this is harmless.)
• Cracks in your flooring
  This is most noticeable with tiling or the cement floor of an attached garage.
• Doors or windows that aren’t aligned correctly anymore
  Have you ever noticed your doors suddenly closing more or less easily during certain seasons? This is due to shifting in your foundation.
• Floors being uneven
  Your foundation was built to provide a flat, even surface for your house. If the floors of your house are not completely flat, the foundation has shifted.

Signs from the exterior include:

• Cracks in exposed parts of your foundation
• Gaps between exterior doors or windows and the exterior wall
• Displaced moldings, doorframes, and window frames
  If there is a gap between the frame or molding around a door or window and the wall that it should be sitting against, something is amiss. 
• Cracks in exterior brick or stone walls
  Cracks in the mortar between bricks is bad enough, but any shift in the foundation that can apply enough pressure to crack the bricks themselves is noteworthy.

How to Prevent Damage

If you’re not seeing many of these signs, your foundation is probably fine. However, if you see one or two things that seem like they might indicate the beginning of a problem, there’s a way to prevent that problem from getting worse.

To prevent a damaged foundation, you should heavily consider damp proofing or waterproofing for your exterior. This process is somewhat involved. It aims to install a barrier between your foundation and the surrounding ground. This is very effective at stopping damage from groundwater and moisture. It can also be used to prevent moisture from leaking into basements, which is a leading cause of basement mold.

Can A Damaged Foundation Be Repaired?

The amount of damage a foundation can accrue before it is irreparable is quite extensive. Repairing a foundation actually comes with many solutions. This is especially true if you catch the damage early on. Foundations that are beginning to shift position due to the shifting ground beneath it are some of the easiest to repair – though the process isn’t simple nor cheap.

How to Repair a Damaged Foundation

If you need help repairing a damaged foundation, you’ll need to contact a local specialist. The repair will typically involve digging into the surrounding soil to expose the foundation. Your specialist can then repair it from beneath by applying supports. This uses a method called slabjacking.

If you have questions about damage prevention, waterproofing, or damp proofing, you can get all the help you need right here. Call us at POM Waterproofing and we can help you avoid any future need for foundation repair.