Cottage Grove MN Waterproofing For Wet Basements And Foundations

Great Lakes Waterproofing has been serving Cottage Grove MN for close to 18 years!  Specializing in exterior waterproofing, we stop water before it enters cracks and holes, moving through your walls.  Parts of Cottage Grove have very wet and moving ground conditions, others have a lot of clay mixed in with soil, if you have water in your basement similar to the photos below call us now for a FREE EVALUATION! 

Waterproofing Cottage Grove Home with Newer Drain Tile System and Wet Basement

Sorry for the bad quality photo but this wet basement in Cottage Grove MN had a drain tile and sump pump put in a few years ago.  The owner was excited and went forward with remodeling the basement but heavy rain spoiled the plans.  Luckily the finished basement walls were not put up yet.

Water and efflorescence (crusty white powder) have moved through the wet basement wall and curiously stop at the seam of the new drain tile concrete where it meets the original floor.

We are not experts, a mold professional should be brought in but most of this insulation should be removed to get rid of any mold.

The problem is these Cottage Grove Basement walls are poured concrete, a basement floor to ceiling crack is allowing water in and the entry point is above the floor so the water never gets down to the new drain tile system but runs out onto the basement floor.

Great Lakes Exterior Waterproofing stopped the water outside using Hydraulic Cement and Bentonite Injections for waterproofing.

Fixing a Cottage Grove MN  Basement with a Non-Working Drain-Tile System

Areas of Cottage Grove MN can get a lot of water.  Around 1980 the installation of interior drain-tile systems became really popular for wet basements in existing homes.

Great Lakes Waterproofing has installed many of these waterproofing systems but drain tile is not immune from issues, mostly dirt and sand will eventually clog the pipes up and it's nearly impossible to fix.

This drain tile system was years old, other contractors quoted replacing the entire drain tile system and sump pump for a lot of money.  While the system was still working, some of the holes were clogged with sand and water was back-flowing onto the wet basement floor.

Great Lakes Waterproofing Identified several cracks in this Cottage Grove Basement Foundation and used bentonite waterproofing injections outside of the basement, stopping the water before it entered the drain-tile system.  The Cottage Grove Home Owner monitored the water flow to make sure is was slowing down and eventually refinished his basement.

Waterproofing Foundation With Iron Ochre That Clogs Drain Tile System

Some of the worse wet basement issues we've seen involve iron ochre, it's the orange liquid in the above photos.

First the waterproofing customer notices water in the basement and gets a waterproofing contractor to "fix" the problem with an interior drain-tile system.  Unfortunately the underground water is full of iron ochre, an orange slimey bacteria that clogs everything in it's path.  After spending a lot of money for an expensive drain tile system, the iron ochre coats everything and stops water movement to the sump basket.

Drain-tile and sump pump systems do not stop water, they just manage it and if there's any issues, you're back to a wet basement over even worse.

This customer went with exterior waterproofing from Great Lakes Waterproofing, stopping water from the outside using bentonite injections to stop the water and iron ochre outside for Real Waterproofing!