Dry Basement

The costs to achieve a dry basement can vary significantly from house to house. The best way of keeping basement dry is to stop the source of water in the first place. Unless your foundation walls have deep cracks in them, you can stop most, if not all of your wet basement problems by checking your house for drainage problems. You have to make sure that your gutter system is functioning effectively. If it is not, you may very well get huge puddles on the outside perimeter of your house, which will inevitably leak into your basement. You want to make sure that your downspout is flowing away from your foundation and that you perhaps install splash blocks, which you can find at your local home improvement store. 

If you don’t have a dry basement floor or wall and have no idea where the water is leaking from, cut out a square shaped square, which measures about a foot in length, and paste it on the inside of the basement wall using tape on all 4 sides. Leave it on for a couple of days. If, once you remove the foil, the inside of it is wet, it means that you have water getting in through your concrete walls. Dry Lock is a good solution for minor water leakage such as this…

Assuming that your leaking problems aren’t that bad you can get the Dry Lock Basement Sealer, which is essentially a waterproof paint, which keeps the water out, even when its under pressure. Before you actually use the Dry Lock you want to make sure that your walls are clear of debris and that you use waterproof or hydraulic cement to seal the edges between your basement floor and wall. You also want to get two coats of Dry Lock for maximum effectiveness.

You can get a professional system such as the Waterguard, which involves digging out the inside perimeter of your basement an implanting tube like systems which make sure that all of the water goes inside them rather than inside your basement. Although you will still technically get water in your basement, it will be beneath you at the perimeter. Getting a Waterguard is recommended for water damage that is not too serious. For maximum effectiveness you can use Dry Lock to keep the water coming in from your walls and Waterguard to keep the water coming in from the edge of your floor.

How to Dry Wet Basement By Yourself

Sometimes, just making sure that the outside perimeter isn’t flooded when it rains (by making sure your gutters work right) is not enough. Using the Dry Lock and/or Water Guard (there are many similar products, for example, the Water Guard is more commonly known as an interior drainage system) may not be enough to maintain a dry basement waterproofing. Both of these products do not stop the source of the water. You can do everything you want on the inside of your basement, but if you aren’t doing anything outside, you may very well be ruining your foundation. In this case you want to install an exterior drainage dry basement system or, more simply, a French drain…

For example, your basement wall may be adjacent to a large hill from which all of the ground water goes into your basement. Or maybe you just have a lawn from which, for whatever reason, water leaks into your basement. If this is the case you’ll need to dig out the outside perimeter of your house until you see the end of the cement foundation, cover the outside foundation wall with tar, place a plastic tarp on the tar, place a tube with holes on top into the trench, and then fill the hole you made on the perimeter wall with gravel. You can easily do this process yourself with the help of a little elbow grease, especially if you only want a dry basement floor in one section of your basement where there is persistent flooding. The key to this exterior drainage system is that the tube, which you place in it has to be at an angle so that the water flows out of it with the help of gravity. The reason many people don’t do this is because you have to excavate a lot of earth around your house.

If there is water coming into your basement from all directions, you’ll just want to hire a pro because it will take a very long time to dig a hole big enough on the entire outside perimeter of your house. Furthermore, if there is water coming in from cracks in your floor or if you have a crack in your foundation, you need professional help to repair it (situations such as these are rare, accounting for about 10% of homes who have water leakage in their basements). The B Dry Basement System offers professional help for sealing every basement. Don’t be afraid, however, to waterproof your basement by yourself. Although it won’t be easy, it is the most affordable dry basement solution and easily the best dry basement system because it will treat the outside of your house, treating the core source of your problem.

If you search for “Waterproofing Contractors” in your local business directory or at Yellowpages.com you’ll see a lot of companies who specialize in dry basement waterproofing. They’ll entice with free estimates and say that they have the latest this and the best that. Fact is, all you need is a French drain unless you have water going through cracks on your basement floor. Although you can do it by yourself, these services specialize in getting dry basements and will give you something very valuable…time. Regardless, it doesn’t hurt to try making an American dry basement by yourself.

(Check out Pittsburgh PA Kitchen if you are looking for handyman services in the Pittsburgh area.)