Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, I may be coming into this topic late. But I’ve never heard of a “Water Engineer”. I spent summer and winter breaks in High school thru college working for my grandfather ( Owned a construction company).

Usually, extend gutters. Make sure clay like soil has a nice slope away from the house. Details you can look up.

I like these issues. Try and send pics. Most likely this is very solvable with minimum effort/money

Forgot to mention, I’ve lived in and flipped a dozen houses. Most had water issues - that’s why I got them cheap. Yet I’ve never spent more than a thousand dollars fixing them.

Best of luck

Depending on the extent of the flip, you shouldn’t be able to sell them without installing functional perimeter drains.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

Anonymous wrote:Sorry, I may be coming into this topic late. But I’ve never heard of a “Water Engineer”. I spent summer and winter breaks in High school thru college working for my grandfather ( Owned a construction company).

Usually, extend gutters. Make sure clay like soil has a nice slope away from the house. Details you can look up.

I like these issues. Try and send pics. Most likely this is very solvable with minimum effort/money

Forgot to mention, I’ve lived in and flipped a dozen houses. Most had water issues - that’s why I got them cheap. Yet I’ve never spent more than a thousand dollars fixing them.

Best of luck

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

The water in my neighborhood literally pushes up out of cracks in the street. Groundwater is a real thing. I have no idea if OP has this problem but in our local soil and geology you may have basement water problems even if you clear all the water from your roof and around your house. There may be other parts of the country or even spots locally where redirecting surface water is all you have to do. But the poster who keeps insisting this is always true is wrong! And no, I don’t sell basement waterproofing.