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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The basement waterproofing business is full of charlatans. You don't want anyone who does a lot of marketing, if they wear a uniform or drive a truck with fancy logos steer clear.

The problem is that rainwater is running down the foundation and finding cracks to get in. The solution is first to keep that water away from the foundation in the first place, and then to give it a place to go where it can be disposed of safely. The exact details depend upon the site and how it was built. But if someone starts talking about "groundwater" or "water table" or similar mumbo-jumbo, cross them off your list. [/quote]

Avoid interior perimeter solutions at all cost if you at all can. Go for external dig out and repair and slab repair. If you think about it interior sump pump and interior perimeter is making your walls into a water conduit. You don’t want water to come near or into your walls in the first place.

Not to mention pests, mice, crickets (black indoor ones). You’ll never get rid of these again. Pick your company on whether they’ll attempt exterior solution as the priority one.[/quote]

Avoid anyone who proposes excavating anything until all possibilities of handling runoff on the surface have been exhausted.

It's not a question of internal or external, it's a question of whether you need to dig at all.[/quote]

This is fine but for the houses I’ve lived in in Maryland, I don’t think you can have a dry basement without functional perimeter drains. If your house is of the age where the original ones have failed, you can play with downspouts all you like and it may not solve the problem. [/quote]
I have a 60some year old house in MoCo. We've had no water issues in our basement since we managed the surface flow shortly after purchasing almost 30 years ago, and doubling the size of the house 15 years ago.

Ground water isn't really an issue for us as we're on the side of hill. Location, location, location. I'd think twice before buying bottom land in the piedmont.[/quote]

If you doubled the size of the house 15 years ago, those are new drains? I don’t understand what you mean. [/quote]
We had a small bit of water getting into the basement during rain when we moved in 30 years ago, quickly fixed with improved downspout draining and a bit of sculpting of the yard. 15 years ago, we popped the top and bumped basement out a bit. We did usual construction on the foundation bump, but nothing to the original foundation - just continued careful surface flow management. We still have no water getting in.[/quote]

Do you have reason to believe the original drains aren’t functioning? [/quote]
What original drains? There was no evidence of anything beyond some gravel when we dug out the foundation for the bump.[/quote]

Okay well I’m not an expert but I think all houses with basements would have had clay “tiles” or something like that depending on when they were built, so possibly you’re not an expert about this either. [/quote]
Failed attempt at sarcasm. The original drains were long since silted up.[/quote]

What?? That wouldn’t make them disappear. [/quote]

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