It’s kind of expected that an older home will develop a leak at some point. Is the floor & wall seam leak a normal issue A1 Foundation Crack Repair runs into? Adam explains why older homes can develop a leak at the seam where the floor and wall meet and what you can do about it.
Narrator: The topic of today's podcast: I have an older house that has a leak at the seam where the floor and wall meet. What can I do about it? So, Adam, I guess it's kind of expected that an older home will develop a leak at some point. Is the floor and wall seam leak a normal thing that you see?
Adam: It is definitely in the area of things that we see on a daily basis here. With an older house, something that was built anytime after, say, 1930, typically, it's from 1930 to, let's say, 1970, 1975. Most of those homes will not have a footing around the perimeter of the house. So the way the construction is styled is a little bit different, and we have to treat it a little bit different than in the house that was built, let's say, 1970s and newer. So as we discussed in a previous podcast, these newer homes we use, typically use an injection process.
Unfortunately, when we get into the older homes, it's very challenging because in the newer homes, we rely on that concrete to concrete to concrete seam to encapsulate the area where the water is coming in. On an older home, say anything that was built after 1930, those homes are going to be, concrete walls are going to be placed directly onto compacted soil or gravel, and then the floor is going to be brought right up against it. So we don't have a footing underneath the perimeter of the home. And this is a challenge because the process of injection is just basically going to flood underneath there and not create the best seal possible. So when we get into these older homes, we need to understand, well, how widespread is this problem? If it's a widespread problem where you have the entire length of wall or multiple walls where water is actively coming through that seam, a sump pump might be your best option, and that would actually get the water table out and the pressure out from under there. It may resolve in that there's a few areas that we still need to hit. In that case, we need to spot treat it.
If it is an isolated area or an area that's within reason, let's say half of a wall or a handful of feet, we would actually do a different process than the injection. We would chisel out that wall and then install a quartz based masonry material that actually will plug the pores of the concrete and go up in the wall and also down to the floor, basically encapsulating that area, creating a barrier for the water to not come through there. It's not the best choice to do that around the entire perimeter because it'll not block out every piece of pressure that's going to come through there. But if there's an isolated area, we can fortify that fairly well. So that's why it's important when we ask these questions with customers is knowing how old your home is and the style of construction really depends on the right, proper service for it because we don't want to put the wrong application for the wrong type of home and give you an inferior result. So it's important to see where these waters are coming in and knowing the age of your home and that really dictates what things are available for you to actually resolve the issue.
Narrator: Thanks, Adam, for explaining why older homes can develop a leak at the seam where the floor and wall meet and what you can do about it.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem, and think you need a crack repair professional near Condord, NH, 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.