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.
Waterproofing Rubble and Stone Basement Wall
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 Wall
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
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.
Why Exterior Waterproofing?
It stops the water before it moves through your foundation and in most cases, it's a fraction of the cost of a drain tile system.
Do French Drains work?
French Drains are a great way to move water away from your foundation. If the grade in your yard has enough slope and the water has someplace to go, it can be a great option.
Unfortunately most people think about these after the basement is getting wet. This basement has a working inside drain tile system and a lot of French Drains around the outside but they're still getting water inside the basement.
The ground in Stillwater has a lot of rock and flowing water all trying to get to the river, once it finds it's way through the foundation, it's very difficult to stop even with added water management.
Basement Water Coming Through Window Well
Basement windows should be checked yearly for mortar and caulk damage. The window well should be properly attached and also caulked on the inside to prevent water from pooling in this low spot.
Here we've installed a new galvanised window-well and caulked the wooden trim of the window. A few inches of pea gravel help keep weeds away and drainage away from the window.
Waterproofing Basement With Paint
Some of the newer home's and townhouse's basements seem to start to leak water immediately. We see builder's "warranty" this work with a couple different paint products, one is a thin layer of foam that's painted over (the gray under the window) and the other is a paint product sold as "waterproof."
These products tend to have a short lifespan, about a day longer than your basement warranty.
This wet basement has a drain-tile, waterproofing paint, what else should we do? Oh yeah, how about Real Waterproofing, sealing up the foundation and stopping the water.
