To finish your mostly dry but sometimes damp basement …

[Anonymous]

…how did you prepare the walls? What do you put beneath the drywall? Contractor says tar but is that really the modern way? Basement doesn’t have standing water but a bit of dark-looking dampness in a few spots after significant rain.

[Anonymous]

Can you address this from the outside?

[Anonymous]

You have to fix it first with drainage. There’s nothing you can put on the walls to waterproof them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have to fix it first with drainage. There’s nothing you can put on the walls to waterproof them.

+1

[Anonymous]

Redid the grading all around the house before refinishing the basement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Redid the grading all around the house before refinishing the basement

How are the gutters and downspouts? Are they clear and emptying 10+ feet away from the house?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redid the grading all around the house before refinishing the basement

How are the gutters and downspouts? Are they clear and emptying 10+ feet away from the house?

That’s fine but it might not be enough.

[Anonymous]

Read about Owen’s Corning Basement finishing system.

[Anonymous]

Is it coming in along only one wall?

[Anonymous]

We had contractor dig it out from the outside and then put down a waterproof membrane next to the basement exterior, then drain board, and drain tile and such like. Our basement likely was much worse than average at the start, but it is bone dry now. This is not low cost if done properly.

Our fix was spec'd by a licensed PE. We avoided using all those "wet basement" specialist companies.

Tar will work for maybe 10 years, maybe longer if the soil is not clay. Builders like tar because it is cheap and easy and will last linger than the usual 5yr builder warranty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redid the grading all around the house before refinishing the basement

How are the gutters and downspouts? Are they clear and emptying 10+ feet away from the house?

Start with fixing drainage as PP above suggests.

[Anonymous]

Sorry you can’t put a bandaid on it. You will get mold. Fix your issues. Basements should never get wet.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes the cause can be complex but it usually comes down to gutters, adequate drainage and good grading around the house. We had water in our window well that overflowed into the basement last week and after some sleuthing, figured out the underground gutter drains 25 feet away were not fully functional, backflowing towards the house, plus there's been some erosion over time, leading to a lot of water against the wall. Don't believe those basement waterproofing companies. We had someone come out and without really doing much diagnostics, offered a blanket solution of a $$$$ indoor drain tile system. We don't have a quote for our landscaping project yet (regrade the drain and regrade the soil), but I bet it will be cheaper, is much less disruptive, and it fixes the root cause of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had contractor dig it out from the outside and then put down a waterproof membrane next to the basement exterior, then drain board, and drain tile and such like. Our basement likely was much worse than average at the start, but it is bone dry now. This is not low cost if done properly.

Our fix was spec'd by a licensed PE. We avoided using all those "wet basement" specialist companies.

Tar will work for maybe 10 years, maybe longer if the soil is not clay. Builders like tar because it is cheap and easy and will last linger than the usual 5yr builder warranty.

Most all of the soil in this area is clay and tar will not work from the inside. Neither will any kind of paint of wall sealant. All it will do is trap more water in the wall if its's CMU block-what most people call, cinder block.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes the cause can be complex but it usually comes down to gutters, adequate drainage and good grading around the house. We had water in our window well that overflowed into the basement last week and after some sleuthing, figured out the underground gutter drains 25 feet away were not fully functional, backflowing towards the house, plus there's been some erosion over time, leading to a lot of water against the wall. Don't believe those basement waterproofing companies. We had someone come out and without really doing much diagnostics, offered a blanket solution of a $$$$ indoor drain tile system. We don't have a quote for our landscaping project yet (regrade the drain and regrade the soil), but I bet it will be cheaper, is much less disruptive, and it fixes the root cause of the problem.

I don’t think this will work in my whole neighborhood, which is about 100 years old with a lot of ground water and clay soil. The only dry basements have drains and sump pumps.

People on this site love to come on and boast about how you can fix this with gutters blah blah, but gutters and grading only help with what is landing on your roof or rolling towards your house along the surface. For my house, that would not be enough.