How much to waterproof and finish a basement (basic finish, not luxury...)

[Anonymous]

PP here who had the negative comments about the B-dry wall liner. I did A LOT of research on this issue before we hired B-dry. We did the b-dry system knowing that eventually we'll have to probably do the outdoor fix as well. We do have some water coming down gradient, but I am certain that some of it is also just a high water table that cannot be fixed. But, we have incredibly nice landscaping and very expensive flagstone walkways that would have to be demolished and I am not ready to do that yet. Any structural engineer will tell you that as long as the water is coming into the walls, it will eventually cave your wall in. It is simple physics and I did not need an expert to tell me that. The weep holes and french drain are supposed to wisk the water away so that it does not sit. The wall liner is to make sure that if any water gets through the walls it will not destroy a finished basement. And that is true, but again, one cannot monitor whether the guaranteed system b-dry installs is actually working. That said, the other companies I interviewed with MUCH (even more than double) the estimate would still want to put a piece of plastic on the bottom to keep water from flowing on to the floor. So, I cannot give any unbiased citations. In retrospect I don't know if we would have done the B-dry again. We are both very new homeowners from the desert and had never even been in a basement so we had no idea what to look for and had a crappy realtor and inspector who could not see the problems in the basement with bad drywall panels and boxes. There was a 500 year storm that disclosed what was obviously a long history of water problems and we were dispondent and panicky.

As for B-dry, yes they hired illegals for 10 times what it would have cost us to hire them ourselves, but we have a warranty that so far they have honored without question. I will admit that they have decent customer service and they cleaned up the worksite and left not one speck of dust in our house. On one occasion last year there was water seeping in a spot not covered near out heater, they came and extended the system a couple feet without any fuss at all. I also had lots of efflourescence in the worst corner of the basement, they quickly came and took down the plastic wall and the plastic underneath. It was dry, and NO MOLD, which is a good sign - the water was being wisked away although it was clearly had been present on the inside of the cinder block, hence the efflourescence. We didn't have them take down the plastic in the area of our wall that had a decent sized crack from settling and probably water, but told us how to do it (which I will keep to myself here because the guy was very nice).

So, I will say that B-dry wants to keep your basement dry and I give them high marks for customer service. But, in the end we will do the outside and probably even reinforce the wall of concern within the next decade. We do not have a big fancy house, but will probably stay here for at least 20 years.
The whole wet basement issue is a pain, and because of the siting of our house, there is nothing we can do to try stop it. Your sitiation OP may be very different and I hope you find a resolution.