Residential Wet Basement Case Studies

This is a common issue we see with poured foundations, a crack has developed from the corner of the vent (a stress point), this will extend all the way down to the basement floor.  Warm air from the vent will heat snow and ice in the winter, saturating the ground which freezes and expands, pushing the foundation until it cracks while also allowing moisture to go through the crack and creating a wet basement.  This home has a working drain tile system but water is moving through the wall above the floor bypassing the drain tile system.

We patched the upper portion of the crack and sealed below grade with bentonite injections on the outside for Real Waterproofing.  The customer also had the option for us to staple the wall crack from the inside with Fortress Carbon Fiber Pins and epoxy, this would stabilize the crack and prevent it from further expansion.

This poured wall has a crack from the basement floor to the the window ledge.  Since the basement was so wet, the customer had to remove the drywall and carpet;  this crack was allowing a large amount of water to flow through above the basement floor level.  You can see the mold and mildew buildup on the bottom wooden board.

The other waterproofing contractors wanted to re-do the drain-tile system which was only about 12 years old but the system was fully functioning.  The problem was water flowing through the crack above the basement floor, completely bypassing the drain tile system.

Issues like this are best solved using exterior basment waterproofing solutions, water pressure is strong and any paint or concrete product will eventually just peel or crumble off the wall, usually it doesn't take very long.

This townhome has a floor to ceiling crack all the way through the poured concrete wall, this is a big one that has ruined the finished basement with a lot of water.

Near the crack is several utilities including the hose bibb and drain-tile drainage line.  The drain-tile drains into the rock landscaping, which can hold hundreds of gallons of water in the porous rocks.  The water finds the crack and dumps back into the home, this time it bypasses the sump basket and goes straight onto the basement floor.

This is another common issue we see especially during the winter when the ground is frozen and snow banks are close to the foundation.

This water-proofing drain-tile system is draining  next to the foundation, the snow bank is holding the water in and it can't flow further away from the foundation since it's frozen.  We always recommend discharging the drain-tile water away from foundation as far as possible, otherwise you'll create a moat.  You can see the block destruction from years of wet conditions in this area.  Great Lakes Waterproofing sealed up the foundation using our exterior basement waterproofing solution, bentonite will coat the uneven basment wall preventing water from moving through the wall and slowing down or stopping further concrete damage.

This home has block wall construction with a working drain-tile waterproofing system.  For some reason water is coming straight through the blocks without the usual cracks or holes present.  The most likely cause is water brought in dirt and sand with it blocking off the channels to the underfloor pipe system.

Since this home had a working drain-tile system, we waterproofed the exterior with bentonite for Real Waterproofing.  Filling the voids and water pathways with Benonite stopped the wet basement.

This poured concrete wall has a horizontal crack.  The staining shows where water is flowing through the wall.  While some of the damage may look bad, the wall does have a skim coat of concrete that is also peeling off the wall.

Drain-tile would not work in this situation, the water is coming through above the floor and drain tile systems collect water under the floor or through the cores of block walls 

Some waterproofers will want to put up plastic panels, cover the walls and connect to the underfloor system.  Over time, the systems clog up with dirt and crumbling concrete, the same dirt we see staining the all.  they also become perfect enviroments for mold and mildew to grow with a powerful smell since they have a hard time of completely drying out.

About 60% of the homes we waterproof have a working drain tile system but with poured concrete walls they can be very ineffective.

This home has a large vertical wall crack and a lot of water was coming from under the insulation, and what you can't see is the drain tile sump pump a few feet away.  The black corrugated plastic is open on top and used to help channel surface water down into the system but this is very ineffective.  An open top system like this can allow moisture and fumes to flow back into the room but in this case most of the water was just flowing over the top of it onto the floor.  It doesn't take a lot of dirt to plug up a drain tile system but repairing it can be very expensive.

This is actually a pretty common problem, a homeowner adds an addition with more basement space.  After a few years the addition starts leaking water creating a wet basement.

Most contractors don't take the time to properly waterproof the old and the new foundations, usually a quick coating of concrete is all we see.  These foundations will move and small cracks or holes may develop.

This foundation is modern CMU (cinder block) connected to much older poured concrete.  Over time it started to leak badly, our solution was to inject the exterior with bentonite waterproofing which can be seen coming through the seam.  While this may look bad, we like it because we've hit the "sweet spot."

Once the area has been fully treated we'll clean up the interior and apply hydraulic cement on the inside to cork up the holes for a dry basement.

Exterior waterproofing using bentonite based waterproofing materials is perfect for limestone walls.  Most of these walls are over 100 years old and the mortar joints will start eroding, allowing water easy entry into your basement.  Interior drain-tile system are not recommended for limestone wall contruction.

This downtown Minneapolis Building had multiple wet basement areas and the only access on the outside was covered with asphalt and used as a break area.  Great Lakes Waterproofing drilled multiple holes near the foundation and injected the area with all-natural waterproofing bentonite which fills voids and follows the water pathways.  Once fully set-up, water will not be able to penetrate these areas for a dry foundation.

Once the job was completed we filled in the holes with asphalt filler, cleaned the area and left it like we found it.

Great Lakes Waterproofing loves the concept of capturing roof water and reusing it but the sad reality is that roofs collect a lot of water.  This roof drains on the this side only, the homeowner spent a lot on new gutters and downspouts and added a collection bucket.

What the installer didn't tell her was that the roof collected a little under 1000 gallons for every inch of rain, this little bucket was around 40 gallons, there was no secondary system to get it away from the foundation so the homeowner had hundreds, and even thousands, of gallons of water concentrated on this wall causing major basement waterproofing issues.

We actually see it a lot, the hollow blocks of a cinder block (CMU) wall can hold a lot of water, 1.5 gallons or more for each block!  Sometimes we need to relax some of the water pressure by draining the walls.

This is a block wall but there so much mineral crust that it has coated the wall when the water passes through and leaves the crust on the surface.

This 3/4" diameter holed drained for about 20 minutes, luckily we were near the drain-tile system (it still worked, water was not getting to it) and we diverted it to the sump basket.  This wall was then waterproofed on the exterior for Real Waterproofing.  The drain-tile is still installed but running at a fraction of the time.