Our Block Foundation Leaks What Should We Do?

Q:

The Block foundation in our house leaks in the basement what should we do?

A:

There is only one thing that you can do to stop the leakage through the basement walls; 

• Dig around the outside of the foundation, all the way down until the footings are exposed.

• You will then have to pressure wash the block walls to remove any excess dirt or old tar off the block wall.

• Using a self adhering waterproofing that you roll out and stick on yourself. It should be installed vertically starting at one end of the foundation, you will have to overlap it every time that you run it vertically, the overlap must be 3 or 4 inches. This will ensure that there aren"t any spots that could leak later because of lack of coverage. You should extend the waterproofing until it reaches the level that it will be above the finished grade.

• Once you have covered the entire foundation in the waterproofing then you need to protect it. You can do this by installing a dimple board product overtop of the waterproofing. This should be installed so that it runs from the footing up until it is 3 or 4 inches above the finished grade, any excess waterproofing showing above it you can trim off later after the backfill has occurred.

• Then you need to repair or replace the weepers, if you have any they were probably be damaged when you dig down to expose the wall.

• You might have to add more stone to recover the weepers before you backfill.

• You can now backfill against the waterproofed wall, you must make sure that you don’t backfill with any tree stumps, rocks or other debris that came out of the dig. These items can damage the waterproofing or the actual block wall itself.

I would recommend that for the purposes of re-waterproofing the foundation of your home you take the time to find a qualified contractor to do the work. This will ensure that your foundation doesn’t leak in the future and that you won’t damage the block wall while doing the work.

Rob Abbott

Village Builders Inc.