Stillwater Minnesota Waterproofing For Wet Basements And Foundations
Yes even the beautiful city of Stillwater Minnesota needs basement and foundation waterproofing. Most of the homes and businesses around the downtown area are very old with rubble or rock/stone walls. The walls are fine but the mortar used to seal the blocks is slowly turning to a sandy grit allowing water to flow through the walls. Great Lakes Waterproofing loves old stone and limestone walls, ask any professional, exterior waterproofing with bentonite is the preferred method to seal up the foundation. Plastic sheeting or dimple board should never be used on residential interiors or other buildings unless there is no way to use bentonite.
The risk of mold and mildew growing and moving through holes in the plastic sheet are very high. Dirt and sand will eventually plug up the interior pipe and tubing making the system worthless and the smell will not go away, I don't care how much plastic you use.
The newer neighborhoods might have poured wall basements, cracks and rusted tie-rods allow water to move through the walls, onto the floor before they can even hit the drain tile system. We've worked on homes as young as three years! and businesses that aren't finished being built.
Rubble and Stone Basement Wall in Stillwater MN is Leaking Water
Stillwater is one of the oldest cities in Minnesota, it's not uncommon to find homes over 100 years old and back then they typically built them with limestone or large stones from the area. Limestone, stone, and rubble walls are strong and have lasted a long time but the mortar used to seal between the stones can start deteriorating, falling off in sand size particles.
Most of these homes never had gutters and the falling water, over time, worked it's way into the home or building.
Using Great Lakes Waterproofing exterior bentonite injections, we are able to seal the outside of the wet basement, stopping ground water on the outside.
The photo above shows a very old basement wall, our waterproofing installers are pumping in this area's exterior and the bentonite is flowing through the wall, just like the water did. Don't be alarmed!
The exterior bentonite waterproofing injections will cork up the wall, fill outside voids and stop the water! We will clean the area and you'll have a dry basement the professional's way!
Waterproofing Poured Foundation Basement in Stillwater MN
Stillwater is a great area and there's several newer homes around the downtown area but a lot of these new homes suffer from the same problem, the poured concrete basement walls are put in very fast and care isn't taken to make sure the basements don't leak water in the future.
After looking at thousands of basements, we have no preference which type of foundation material is better for long term waterproofing. Most new homes and buildings are built with very little preventative waterproofing so it's just a matter of time before you have a wet basement.
The above photo shows a newer home and even though by code it's required to have a drain tile system, it still had water moving through the walls.
Why? See all the bubbles in the concrete? This shows the contractor didn't vibrate the air out of the concrete slurry, leaving it very porous. The rusty metal in the middle is a tie-rod, a sacrificial piece of metal used to hold the wood forms in place while pouring the concrete. Over time this rusts through and leaves a opening roughly 1/4" x 2" every three feet of vertical with 4' of horizontal spacing. One wall could have dozens.
Exterior Waterproofing Poured Concrete Basement in Stillwater MN
This is the same Stillwater Wet Basement, bentonite is being pumped along the side to fill voids and pathways that water is now travelling through.
Over time the basement water problems will get worse, the freeze thaw of winter acts like a wedge, making the foundation cracks and holes even larger.
See the air vent? It's very common for these to be near the problem area, why? They melt the snow in this area and water is trying to push through the foundation. Eventually the tie-rods rust through or stress cracks develop at these form seams.
Drain tile is great at collecting under-floor or hydrostatic water but this basement is on a slope, there is no hydrostatic water pressure on this basement, it's all "grade-level" water moving down through the dirt into the wet basement.
The drain-tile sytem in this home was bone-dry because the water was moving through the wall above the floor.
