3 Tips for Waterproofing Your Basement

When purchasing or building a home with a basement, it is essential to make sure that your home has gone through essential steps for waterproofing to protect your belongings and foundation.  If you have purchased a home rather than built one of your own, you may have to make some modifications to your home’s basement or foundation in order to ensure that flooding does not occur.  Pentrey Builders Inc would like to provide you with 5 tips for waterproofing your basement against common problems.

1.  Your basement has excessive moisture and you can not find the location of the leak.

If you are noticing that certain walls in your basement are damp and you can not find a specific leak, then you must determine whether the water is coming in through seepage or condensation.  The best way to determine this is to tape a tin foil square to one of your walls that exhibits the most frequent dampness.  Make sure that the tin foil square is taped against the wall as air tight as possible.  Wait 24 hours and remove the tin foil.  If the side against the wall is wet then you have a seepage problem.  If the side against the wall is dry but the side away from the wall is wet then it is a condensation problem.

2.  Basement windows create waterproofing issues by allowing water to seep in during heavy storms.

To provide waterproofing protection to these below grade windows, use metal to line wells that are lined at the bottom with gravel.  Gravel will allow for better drainage and provide the proper waterproofing for these windows.

3.  Condensation is being found on walls and other cool items in the basement.

Condensation can be a waterproofing problem as well.  Check for leaking pipes or other items that produce moisture.  Wet clothes that are hung to dry in the basement can cause condensation to occur as the temperatures drop.  Take care to properly insulate pipes and allow for proper ventilation and air circulation in your basement.

Additional waterproofing tips can be found at http://www.waterproofing.org/tips.html.

Should you find yourself in need of professional assistance in waterproofing your home’s basement, please contact Pentrey Builders Inc at 800 573 6873 or 540-775-2185 .

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