Do you have a wet basement?

What causes a wet basement?

Typically, when a house is built, a hole is dug into the earth. If it were to rain, you would expect the hole to fill with water. When you put the house in the hole, the same thing happens - water fills the hole in the looser backfill around the foundation. In areas where the soil has clay in it, you get what is called the "Clay Bowl" effect.

• When your home was built, a hole was dug bigger than the foundation.
• The footing was installed first. It is the "foot" of your foundation and prevents it from sinking into the ground.
• Then the walls were built (they can be made of poured concrete, block, stone, even - rarely -  treated wood).Then the footings were backfilled, and the floor was poured between the walls.
  Then a footing drain is installed. It is perforated pipe in a bed of 3/4" stone. When these stones lay on top of each other, they make 1/2" spaces in between. These spacers are to filter out the dirt from the water.
• Finally, the foundation is backfilled with the soil that was dug out of the hole. This soil is looser than the virgin earth since it was just disturbed. It will be looser for the life of the house and absorb water quicker than the virgin earth.
• The water then builds up in the backfill and causes hydrostatic pressure which pushes the water into the basement through cracks and joints, most commonly the floor-wall joint.

In areas like Kansas City, where the soil has clay in it, you especially get this effect. If you dug a hole in the ground and then rain follows, you could expect the hole to fill up with water, right? Well, when you put ahouse in this hole, the same thing happens -- the water builds up in the looser backfill around the foundation!

When it comes to solving a wet basement problem, there are many possible solutions, including:

• Exterior Excavation
• Interior Subfloor
• Interior Baseboard System
• Negative-side Sealant

Among the best of these methods is the installation of either an interior subfloor drainage system or a baseboard drainage system along the perimeter of the floor. There are a few challenges to this method, however. One is to keep the drain from being clogged by mud over the years. Many homeowners go years without a water problem and then develop one due to the existing sub-floor and sub-surface drains clogging with mud.

Another challenge for subfloor systems is to set up the system to accept water from the walls without leaving a large unsightly gap at the edge of the floor which can collect dirt and debris from the floor - another potential for clogging the drain.

Dry Basement and Foundation Systems installs the patented WaterGuard® system. WaterGuard® is designed to meet these challenges and keep your basement dry permanently. Contact your local Basement Systems basement waterproofing contractor to further discuss the WaterGuard® system.

Dry Basement & Foundation Systems was founded in Kansas City in February 1975 by Otto W. Fleck. It makes us proud that in over 30 years of business right here in the heart of America we have a satisfactory business performance record with the local consumer protection agencies. We have also agreed to approved procedures including mediation and arbitration to resolve any complaints should it ever be necessary. Customer satisfactions has always been and always will be our first priority. Our goal is 100 percent customer satisfaction. Everyone in our company: the owner, the office staff, your estimator, and each member of the crew - everyone - is committed to that goal.

We have a quality control check that puts YOU, the customer, in charge. Here's how it works: when we complete your job the foreman will ask you a few questions about the work done on your home. Your answers can be summarized as excellent, good, fair or poor. If your answers are all excellent to good the entire crew receives a performance bonus. This is one of the several methods we use to achieve our 100-percent customer satisfaction goal.