Water, Concrete, and Your Basement

You may not realize it, but concrete is a naturally porous building material and any water that is seeping through it and into your basement is not an uncommon problem. Unfortunately, since all concrete is porous and water will eventually seep through it, anyway, the problem usually lies not with the concrete itself, but with the construction of it.

Since basements are by nature underground and are areas that are generally pretty closed off from the outside environment, humidity is typically a problem unless you know how to deal with it. It can lead to flooding and excessive dampness, which in turn will eventually lead to mold growth. If your basement in your home is chronically wet, you should do what you have to in order to dry this area out and waterproof it as soon as possible to avoid structural rot.

The first thing that you need to do is check outside your home around the foundation and make sure that the basement is not taking on water from the outside due to clogged rain gutters on top of the house or downspouts that are not properly being drained. Just dumping some more dirt around the base of your home may solve the problem if the leaks and flooding only occurs during times of heavy precipitation. All of the soil around your home should be slanted away from the base so that water drains as quickly away as possible.

Most homeowners simply try to cracks in the wall this by caulking the crack shut, but this will not work. Water still seeps through it and in a couple of years, the caulk will peel away. Hydraulic cement also does not work very well, because it does not bond well to the concrete. Cement will be very rigid while the concrete is always moving, shrinking, and expanding over time. The cement that you place inside the crack will become just as loose as caulking would.

The best thing to do is to about cracks in the basement wall is to use a low-pressure crack injection of concrete. It used to require heavy and expensive equipment to do this, but these days you can accomplish this task with a simple conventional caulking gun.

Since most cracks in basement walls are caused by water seepage and are not structurally dangerous, expandable polyurethane is typically the best choice to repair them with. It does not add any structural strength to the concrete, but simply creates a waterproof barrier. No matter whether the crack is dry or wet at the time you are going to fill it, the polyurethane will still bond to it.

Epoxy injection can also be used, but it will not bond to wet surfaces, among other problems. It should be used only when there are cracks that appear in concrete block walls or big cracks in slabs of concrete.

Jim Corkern is a writer and respected contributor to the Water damage restoration and mold remediation Industry. Visit his sites for more information.
http://www.floodingct.info
http://www.floodedbasementnj.info