3 Top Wet Basement Waterproofing Approaches in Oak Brook IL 60523
The commercial aspects of Oak Brook IL often overshadow the residential but the village is home to nearly 8,000 residents. Life in Oak Brook is decidedly upscale with larger homes and properties and higher incomes than most of the surrounding area.
Oak Brook owes its existence heavily to the Butler family who were major property owners and developers and who were instrumental in establishing the Oak Brook Civic Association, which established a community in the unincorporated area just before the outbreak of World War II. The Butlers also built nationally known golf and polo clubs in the village.
Oak Brook was incorporated in 1958 due to the coming of major highways and the plans of the Marshall Field family to build a regional shopping center, which opened in 1962 and thrives today as the Oakbrook Center.
Oak Brook’s residential areas were almost fully developed by 1990 with two-thirds of today’s more than 3,000 homes having been built between 1970 and that date. Nearly one-third predated 1970 so only a few hundred homes have been built during the last two decades. Homes in Oak Brook are large and well-appointed, with the median home value exceeding $1 million.
Small homes or large, old or new, homeowners in Oak Brook face the same maintenance problems as do homeowners everywhere and many find themselves in need of wet basement waterproofing.
3 Top Wet Basement Waterproofing Approaches in Oak Brook IL
Just as in nearby Hinsdale and Glen Ellyn, homes in Oak Brook that need wet basement waterproofing are individually evaluated and repaired but there are three waterproofing methods that will solve the majority of problems.
1. Crack Repair – The most common type of foundation in Oak Brook is one of poured concrete and the most common source of seepage in such a foundation is a non-structural crack in the basement wall. These cracks can best be repaired by injecting them with expanding polyurethane from the interior. The polyurethane fills and seals the crack all the way to the outside soil and remains flexible when it cures to prevent re-cracking caused by minor foundation movement.
If the crack is inaccessible from the interior it can be repaired on the outside with sodium bentonite clay. A small hole is dug down to the foundation footings at the site of the crack and filled with the clay, which forms a permanent water barrier on the foundation’s positive side.
2. Interior Drain Tile – Another common type of seepage occurs when hydrostatic pressure under the foundation forces water through the cove joint or cracks in the basement floor. Installing interior drain tile, perforated pipe buried in a bed of washed gravel under the basement floor, alleviates this pressure and carries ground water to a sump pump for disposal. When properly installed, interior drain tile requires no maintenance.
3. Exterior Waterproofing – Poured concrete foundations also experience seepage through patches of porous concrete and over top of the foundation wall; masonry foundations through deteriorated mortar joints or porous masonry units like brick or concrete block. In either case, installing an exterior waterproofing membrane, a thick coating of asphalt-modified polyurethane applied to foundation walls with a trowel, will stop seepage and prevent its recurrence.
In cases of very high ground water, the membrane can be augmented with exterior drain tile and heavy-duty drainage board that protects the membrane and channels water down to the drain tile.
No matter what the source of water, an Oak Brook homeowner who needs wet basement waterproofing will require the advice and services of a basement waterproofing contractor that knows the village and its homes. At U.S. Waterproofing, we have been keeping basements dry and safe all over the Chicago area since our founding in 1957 and we have already been of service to many of your Oak Brook neighbors. Why not ask for our free advice?