Water And The Concrete in Your Basement

Most contractors know this, but something most homeowners do not know is that the concrete in their basement is a naturally porous material and that if there is water seeping in the house through it, this is something that should be expected. Well, it should be expected if your basement was not properly waterproofed when your home was first built. The problem with water getting in the basement through the concrete usually lies with the construction of the home and not with the actual concrete itself, since water will eventually seep through any concrete at any thickness.

Keeping a dry basement can be a difficult thing to do if your basement was not waterproofed very well. Sometimes ground water is responsible for getting into the basement through the walls and the only real thing that you can do about this is to have a drainage system installed so that the soil around the house does not become oversaturated.

Checking around outside the home’s foundation is the first thing that you need to do. See if there is any water settling in pockets around the exterior walls of the house and if there is, then one thing that you can do to stop this is piling up more soil in this area to do away with the puddles. Making sure your rain gutters are completely cleared out at all times will help keep the water directed to the downspouts instead of falling down onto the ground next to the base of the house.

Cracks in concrete walls cannot be caulked shut, because the caulking will eventually be worked loose by the water and will peel off. Hydraulic cement will also not work because it does not stick to the concrete very well. Installing cement will not work, either, because cement is a rigid material and the concrete is not. Cement placed inside the cracks will become as loose as the caulking you put in before.

Cracks in the walls can be filled in with a number of different effective materials, but will either bond or not bond depending on if the surface is wet. Expandable polyurethane will work and will bond to the surface whether the surface is wet or dry. This merely creates a waterproof barrier.

An injection of concrete with a caulking gun is an option, but so is an injection of epoxy. Epoxy, however, will not bond to wet surfaces.


Jim Corkern is a writer and promoter of quality
flood and water damage cleanup and
water damage restoration> companies across the united states.