* You need to Determine whether your water problem is an interior problem or exterior problem .The most Common type of moisture problems within your home's interior areas are high settings on humidifiers, unvented clothes dryers, showering in the bathroom with out proper venting, and the same problem can happen in the kitchen area when cooking. Make sure all area's with in the home are properly ventilated.
* Check all inbound water lines for any tpye of leaks,if any leaks are found then a licensed plumber may be required for the needed for repairs. These type of problems are rarely the cause.But just to be sure! Keep a close eye on it. Because you may have other ongoing hidden or unaware of type issues as well.
* If these moisture problems still continues to exist within the your home, we suggest that your next step would be to contact a top quality local professional waterproofing contractor like WaterPro to locate and repair the problem immeaditly.The work that is needed to waterproof your home correctly is rarely a do-it-yourself type of project. A top quality professional waterproofing contractor like WaterPro will be needed to properly diagnose the problem for you and offer a proper repair solution for your home.
* Now check around the exterior of your home to make sure that the soil has been properly graded around the foundation of your home to be positively sure you have proper drainage of all surface water around your foundation. If water doesn't seem to be draining away your home properly,You may need to have some re-grading and/or surface drainage installed to correct the drainage problem.
* Make sure to check your roof to see that all water run-off including gutters and downspouts, are properly draining away from your home. It’s best to have the downspout outlets drain the water at least minimum of 6’-10’ away from your homes foundation.
* Also, make sure to look at all the exterior areas around your foundation and verify that it has at the least amount a ¼” or more of fall per linear foot for proper water drainage away from your home. If your concrete foundation is sinking or falling inward on your home, then the concrete will need to be taken out and replaced. Plus the water drainage will need to be re-routed away from your homes foundation.Re-routing excess water can be done by proper sloping of the surface soil away from the foundation, or channel drains can be installed at proper locations for proper drainage to a desired location away from your home.
* Basements and crawl spaces also need an exterior drainage system next to the foundation footings. This type of system needs to be a minimum Diam. of 4” corrugated or 4” perforated type pipe that has been backfilled with clean gravel and wrapped in a filter type fabric that has been approved for this type of application. Exterior drainage pipe should be placed to run to an open surface area for proper drainage away from foundation if possible, if that not possible then the pipe should be run to a sump pit that can be installed on the interior or exterior of home and the water should then be pumped away from your homes foundation.
* Determine the proper size of sump pump that will be needed to be installed. The correct sizing of your sump pump is very critical, if a pump is too small it may not keep up with the large amount of water coming into it,most likely it will run constantly, and get over worked and burn out. A pump that is too big is also bad, although it will keep up with the volume of water, it will pump water so fast that the pump will also ‘short cycle’ decreasing its life,which will cause it to fail and die out. Choosing the correct sump basin is also important, this also helps in sizing up a sump pump.
* If an exterior drainage system is not an option,then you will need some type of an interior drainage or under-slab drainage type system that can be installed and drained to a sump pit and then pumped away from the homes foundation. These type of systems are designed to ‘control’ excess water away from the homes foundation area, not to prevent water build-up or penetration into the foundation, but sometimes its your only option, depending on your exsisting conditions in and around your homes foundation.
* Water problems are usually the most common or main cause for structural damage that require foundation repairs, if the cracks are wider than a hair-line fracture, you may need to verify the foundations stability. This might require a professional structual foundation engineer.Please remember this is not a do -it your self type of work, it reqiures a pro.
* Once you have a drainage system set in place, and foundations water under control,You need to have all cracks in your homes foundation walls and floors to be sealed by a pro such as WaterPro. This process is done with epoxy or polyurethane injection.
More basement waterproofing information below:
http://www.waterprobasement.com/
