External Repairs

Is this the right solution for you?  

Exterior waterproofing of your foundation should be reserved for extreme issues. Often times, aging homes, unique foundation constructions and excessive flooding requires significant foundation restoration to keep your basement dry. It can often be difficult to determine if your specific issues require such an involved repair. Here are a few key points to help determine if this is your next step. 

Exterior repairs are best suited for the following problems: 

• Your home has an aging foundation, soft concrete, cinderblock or stone foundation. 
• Your home is experiencing significant flooding from 4 or more areas
• The problem area is not accessible from the interior
• Significant internal damage would be done to access the area in question

External repairs will not work in the following circumstances: 

• Homes that have not addressed external repair requirements like landscaping and grading issues
• Homes that do not allow access to the perimeter of the foundation (town homes etc.)

How it works: 

Once it has been established that exterior waterproofing repairs are required, the first step in the process is excavating the area in question to expose the footing of the home. This could mean hand digging out a small section around a specific problem area or using heavy machinery to excavate the entire perimeter of your home. 

When the problem area has been exposed the wall will be cleaned and prepped for work to commence. This includes significant cleaning of the concrete using power tools and other equipment. Following this step, specialized concrete materials are used to preliminarily seal the crack or deficiency. After all area's have been sealed a layer of water-based tar is applied to the foundation. The next step in this process is the most important; dimple board membrane is adhered to the wall and footing; covering the entire problem area or perimeter of the foundation. The weeping tile is tested to ensure that there are no blockages and materials are replaced as necessary. 

Once all waterproofing equipment has been securely installed, 8-12 inches of gravel is added to the weeping tile trench to ensure proper drainage. This is followed by backfilling of the soil while intermittently tampering to ensure minimal settling and that proper grading is established. 

Care and maintenance: 

Maintenance of external repairs rely greatly on landscaping management and re-grading of soil. If some settling occurs, soil will need to be added and minimal re-grading may be required. This is not an overly cumbersome task; simply monitor soil levels around your foundation after season changes or heavy rains and add soil as necessary. There should never be significant drops in grading levels and any settling should happen within the first year of the repair. 

Outside of managing ground levels, the other major component to supporting your newly installed exterior wrap is to ensure membranes remain slightly above ground level. Aesthetically, membrane can be canvased by rock, shrubs or other landscaping details, but the membrane should never be fully submerged below ground level. Doing so will provide water access behind the waterproofing materials and increase your risk of experiencing a re-leak.