If a homeowner is spending a lot of money to finish their basement, it’s only natural that they would want some kind of guarantee that they won’t have to rip it up in a year to fix a water leak. Is there something you can do to waterproof a basement to prevent water leaks?
Narrator: The topic of today's podcast: How can I waterproof my basement before I finish it? So, Adam, if a homeowner is spending a lot of money to finish her basement, it's only natural that they want some kind of guarantee that they won't have to rip it up in a year to fix a water leak. Is there something you can do to waterproof a basement to prevent water leaks?
Adam: Yeah. This is a common area where people are looking at making a huge renovation project and basement renovations can be easily tens of thousands of dollars depending on what you're looking to do and the foundation. And so often get the question as well. I'd like you to come out and look to see what else we can do here besides what's already been done because I'm going to be investing in this property and the last thing I want to do is just rip it apart. And so it's important to understand kind of what the foundation is. And a lot of times, these houses that are looking to be finished are going to be a poured concrete foundation. And most of these foundations that are going to be finished to a poured concrete are usually in the last, I'll say, 20 to 30 years after construction. So it's something that is, in the grand scheme of things, a relatively newer construction versus something that would be like a stone foundation. So it's important to understand.
Number 1, is there any water, any signs of moisture in the foundation to begin with? And a lot of times people say, well, no, I've never had water. There's no issues here. I've lived here 10, 15 years and never seen a drop, and that's great. So it kind of moves into the category of, like, very much preventative work. On the side where we see, like, a lot of efflorescence, which is that kind of white chalkiness on the walls, they might have foundation cracks that are around that aren't leaking. But whether or not they're going to leak, it's going to be a question. So usually we do a kind of initial evaluation with a customer to see, okay, what issues are present or not present and kind of what path do we need to go on.
The first easiest way to do this is that if there's any sort of flaw in the foundation, whether it's a crack, whether it's around a pipe penetration that has like chalkiness around there, tie rods that are exposed and open so you can see the metal post. These are simple things that should be repaired ahead of time because eventually over time with changing weather patterns, freezing thawing cycles, these areas are going to be exposed and eventually water will come through. We joke that there's only 2 types of cracks. There's ones that leak and ones that are going to leak. We just don't know when. And when you put up the walls and you insulate the foundation and you finish the basement and you're using it as living space, before you know it, then you might have a water issue.
And now it's really hard to figure out what the issue is. So preventative crack repair and touching up the foundation weak points is usually the 1st line of defense against anything that looks suspicious. If everything looks good and you're not having any signs of cracking or any older repairs that need attention, there's really only a few things you can really do without spending tremendous amounts of money on exterior work. So if you're looking on the interior side of the foundation, there are spurry applications and paint applications that we can actually apply to the foundation that will enhance the waterproofing efforts that you already have on the outside.
So in a house that was built in the last, we'll call it 30 years. You might see, kind of a tar that's been applied to the outside. That is a basement waterproofing tar or foundation waterproofing tar. It helps prevent water from actually penetrating into the pores of the concrete. And you can apply something like that on the inside that is paintable, that is something that goes on clear. It actually kind of plugs all the pores of the concrete there. It's a crystalized quartz based material. It kind of plugs all over there so that you don't have that moisture transmission coming into the basement. So it's part of the evaluation process to really find out what is the right path for you because the last thing you want to do is invest in a $50,000 renovation project, to come to find out you needed to do a $1,000 repair ahead of time. Or the other flip side is that if the foundation's looking really good and you don't have a ton of things there, maybe investing in $1,000 worth of repair ahead of time versus $20,000 of pure preventative might be the right course of action because some of these preventative things while nice aren't going to enhance the ability to prevent water coming through. So, it's really important to talk to a professional.
It's really important to understand what the history is of the house through certain types of cycles, whether it's been rainy cycles, whether it's been freeze thaw cycles, whether it's been those crazy events in the wintertime where we have snow, and then rain right on top that really stress the foundation. So understanding when and if the water comes into the foundation will help the pro really understand what options are available and what really makes sense before you really put the money into the foundation repair or foundation renovation project. So talk to us. We’re happy to walk through. We can evaluate the foundation with you and really kind of get a good game plan together to make sure we enhance the renovation project that you have.
Narrator: Well, thanks, Adam, for explaining how to prevent water leaks before a renovation project.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem and think you need a professional, or, if you’d like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visit A1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call Adam at (866) 929-3171. Or you can email Adam at info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.