Sump Pump Facts

All sump pumps fail, it's just a matter of when they will. How old is your sump pump? Do you know the average life of a sump pump is 7 years? And the average life of the sump pump switch is only 4 years. If your pump is over 7 years old, you might want to be proactive and replace it with a new one.

Check Your Sump Pump

The rainy season is almost here! Have you checked your sump pump lately?

Foundation Crack Repair

Many homeowners may be tempted to use caulk or hydraulic cement to patch basement wall cracks. It would be a little more expensive, but much better to have it sealed by a basement waterproofing professional. Caulk is superficial and will allow water to continue seeping behind the patch material, resulting in efflorescence, and eventually the caulk will peel off exposing an enlarged crack. Hydraulic cement does not bond well, also leading to efflorescence. Eventually, the water seepage will dislodge the cement plug. Also with these repairs water will remain on the backside of the crack and freezing in the winter will cause the foundation crack to expand even more.

A good qualified waterproofing and foundation repair specialist usually have nearly a 100 percent success rate for crack repair work. Most contractors offer lifetime warranties for the injection repairs because they are confident in the product quality and the training received from the chosen manufacturer, and most waterproofing contractors perform multiple concrete repairs per day.
Injection products create a win-win situation for the contractors, homeowners, and business owners. Contractors can reliably fix an inconvenience, while saving their residential and commercial consumers thousands of dollars for more extensive repair work and avoiding the inconvenience of excavation.

Where Basement Water Comes From

Where Wet Basements Come From
In order to prevent a wet basement, it is important to understand where the source of the water. There are four common sources of water that seeps into your basement:

1. Surface water running down foundation walls
2. Groundwater in water-saturated soils being pushed into the basement by hydrostatic pressure
3. Storm sewer water from the municipal storm sewer system backing up into the home's existing perimeter foundation drain and leaking into the basement (this can only occur if the perimeter foundation drain system is connected to the municipal sewer system)
4. Sanitary sewer water from a combined municipal storm/sanitary sewer system backing up into the home's drain system, causing sewer water to come up through sink drains and floor drains on lower levels.

When you experience a wet basement for the first time, it is imperative to determine if the water problems are going to reoccur or if it was a one-time event. Essential to solving this question is determining the source.