Waterproofing Building Foundation

I purchased an older home that has some water seepage during storms. I have been told to have the property graded with topsoil to alleviate the water damage. Yesterday, our plumber told us we should also dig a trench around the home and apply an exterior waterseal prior to having the property graded.

Does anyone have any recommendations as to whether this is a good idea? What type of product should I use? Tar? Roof waterproofing material?

I haven't a clue as to what to use. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Is the seepage into a living space or a crawl space or unfinished basement?

Proper grading is important as are gutters to direct the water away from the house. If there is a lot of water involved or there is seepage into a living space, your money might be better invested in installing a french drain around the house while you have it excavated to apply waterproofing. Gutters, landscaping, and drains will probably do more for you than just the sealing.

There will be other opinions after while.

HTH

 

As usual, I agree, with chfite. French drains are frequently reported as a successful solution to moisture problems. While digging out along foundation to install drains, make sure you waterproof. Too, as chfite mentioned, gutters and downspouts need to be clear and carrying excess moisture away from foundation and soil around foundation should be sloped to carry excess moisture away from foundation.

 

Thanks to both of you for this start! When I bought the home, it had no downspouts, so adding them has greatly improved the seepage problem. (The water was seeping into basement rooms in the house from the outside.)

We thought that we would take the extra step of putting some sort of sealant outside of the home around the foundation prior to grading, but it seems like we'd have to dig very, very deep to get to the right place to put the tar/rubber cement/asphalt sealer product.

I have never heard of a french drain before, but when I looked it up on google, I got the idea. I'm not so sure where we would drain the water, but it would still require a lot of digging...

Does it make a difference if the water is coming in at the top of the rooms in the basement and leaking down, rather than coming up from the bottom? Do I need to dig very deep if I decide to tar the outside of the house and then grade it? (It needs about 5 inches of dirt around the home...it really has sunk down over the years.)

Thanks!

 

If you have corrected the gutter and downspout problems and make sure all excess water is carried away from foundation, you have a good start on addressing the issue. Make sure soil around home is not above the 'sill' plate that sits on top of basement wall. If so, it will direct water into basement. Soil should be below sill plate and sloped away from home to carry away excess water. If much landscaping is required, perhaps consulting with a landscape engineer may be insightful. When redirecting water, proceed with caution that you do not direct it onto neighbor's land. If you live in an urban area where there are storm sewers, it might be possible to tie a drain into the local storm drain. The companies that do exterior basement waterproofing, usually come in with a backhoe to remove soil around foundation, install drains, and apply waterproofing. Sometimes where sidewalks and driveways are poured adjacent to the structure, water enters through the gap. The best time to do a personal inspection is during heavy rain. Grab your umbrella and go for a rain walk, looking to see our gutters and downspouts are functioning, if water is pooling near foundation, and look for reasons why water is entering structure where it is.

 

if you have access to the basement wall (ie no sheetrock up), there is a relatively new product you can brush on that i have had great results with....its call zypex, i got mine from an indutrial coating supplier.

good luck

hawg