Basement Crack Repair

Reliable Basement Services has a great crack repair special going on for March, they are only charging $360 for a foundation crack repair, with a lifetime warranty. What a great price!

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.

First Steps to Basement Waterproofing

On the exterior, make sure that the soil is properly graded around perimeter of home to ensure positive drainage of surface water.  This may mean re-grading and/or installing a custom drainage solution.   Check to see that all roof run-off, gutters and downspouts, are draining away from home with positive slope.  It’s best to get downspouts to discharge 10’-15’ from home.  Connecting downspouts to underground 4” PVC drain pipes is a great way to direct the water away from your home Also, look at all exterior concrete… driveways, sidewalks and verify that it has ¼” of fall per foot away from home.  If your concrete is falling toward the home, the concrete will need to be raised, or removed and replaced, or the water will need to be re-routed by installing channel drains in proper locations It is recommended that basements and crawlspaces have interior or exterior drainage system next to footing.  This system is a 4” perforated pipe backfilled with clean gravel and in most cases wrapped in filter fabric. Drainage pipe should be run to daylight if possible, when not possible, pipe should be run to a sump pit that can be installed on the interior of your home and water pumped away. Determine size of sump pump to be installed.  The correct sizing of your sump pump is critical, if a pump is too small it may not keep up with the amount of water coming in, also the sump discharge plays a critical role. If an exterior drainage system is not an option, an interior, under-slab drainage system can be installed and drained to the same sump pit/pump.  Once a drainage system is in place, and foundation stability is verified, cracks in walls and floors need sealed.  This process is done by epoxy or polyurethane injection http://www.reliablebasement.com/

Foundation Crack Repair

Even though concrete cracks are normal, it is not recommended that they remain ignored. Most homeowners have concrete cracks in their basement, either on the foundation wall or on the floor. If there are water puddles or water stains around these cracks you should address them as soon as possible. More often than not, a foundation crack will grow over time and result in larger amounts of water seepage. For more infomation contact Reliable Basement Services http://www.reliablebasement.com/