What is the best way to keep water out of my basement?

You have asked a somewhat difficult question, but I will do the best I can to answer it.

There can be several reasons that the water is getting into the basement and thus there are several different fixes.

First let me start out by saying that in most homes a sump pump is needed. This is the only way to get rain water that runs down into footer drains and get it back out away from your foundation. There is one exception. Sometimes a home will have a gravity system where because of the way the property is graded there may be a natural fall away from the house that will allow for drain pipes to run out of the foundation and into the yard.

Getting back to the fixes for this problem. Once you have determined that you do in fact have water or moisture coming into the basement, you should try to determine what the cause is.

Several factors come into play. Your downspout drains could be over flowing and the water is seeping into the block. The grade of your yard should fall away from the house to let water roll off. You could have crushed footer drain pipe and might even have tree roots running into your footer drains.

So, next thing is to make sure that your footer drains are clear and open and not crushed or full of roots from nearby trees. The best way to tell if there are roots in your footer drains is to check the sump pump basket and you will see the ends of the roots either wound around the bottom of the basket and or coming into the basket from the drain pipe.

If this is the case then you will have to chop up the concrete close to the block wall to open up the area so that you can remove the roots. You may need to replace the section of pipe that the roots were in if it is damaged. After that make sure that the footer drains are functioning properly. You may have to wait for it to rain again before you can do this. Then, put some gravel around the pipe and then leave enough depth to allow for three to four inches of concrete and level it off with the rest of the floor.

If this sounds like a lot of work, believe me it is. I had it happen in my own home. By the way, you will need to do something about the tree that is too close to the house and causing the problem. Talk to a tree expert about this.

There are two other things that I recommend. The first one is the application of a product call Xypex. I have used it many times on damp/moist basement wall and it has kept the water from penetrating again.

Here is the manufacturer's description of the product.

Xypex Concentrate is the most chemically active product within the Xypex Crystalline Waterproofing System. When mixed with water, this light grey powder is applied as a cementitious slurry coat to above-grade or below-grade concrete, either as a single coat or as the first of a two-coat application. It is also mixed in Dry-Pac form for sealing strips at construction joints, or for the repairing of cracks, faulty construction joints and honeycombs. Xypex prevents the penetration of water and other liquids from any direction by causing a catalytic reaction that produces a non-soluble crystalline formation within the pores and capillary tracts of concrete and cement-based materials.

You can find out more about this product line and how to install it
by clicking on the following link.

Xypex Concentrate

Finally there is a third option I want to talk about. It is the "Border Patrol® Baseboard System". This is a do-it-yourself system that is easy to install and really works. The concept is to drill holes into the bottom of the concrete block walls which will let any water that got into the wall seep out. After that there is a special baseboard type system with fittings that go up against the wall and is sealed off that allows the water to flow through the system and into the sump pump.

To find out more about this waterproofing system click on the following link.

Border Patrol Baseboard Waterproofing System

Also be sure to check out our Showroom411 Waterproofing How To and Videos directories.

Rick Maselli
Founder of Showroom411.com