How to do Basement Waterproofing in Orland Park, IL 60462
The village of Orland Park, in Chicago’s southwest suburbs, could have correctly been called a sleepy little town during the first half of the 20th Century. At the turn of that century, fewer than 400 people lived in Orland Park; by 1930, only an additional 200 had moved in. By the mid-century census in 1950 only 788 people called Orland Park home.
Today, Orland Park’s population is around 57,000, which means that a lot of people found their way to town in the last 60-or-so years. The postwar building boom of the 1950s and 60s that caused many other suburbs to balloon didn’t have much of an effect on Orland Park – the population in 1970 stood at 6300, an eightfold increase to be sure but a far cry from 57,000.
It was in the years between 1970 and the turn of the next century that Orland Park really took off, part of the suburban sprawl moving westward from Chicago. In those 30 years, more than 16,000 homes were built in the village, which is more than 80% of the 19,000 that house residents today. Moving into those homes in that period were 46,000 new residents.
Although the average home in Orland Park isn’t very old, homeowners there, like their neighbors in Oak Lawn and Palos Heights, still face maintenance and repair problems and many of them have sought help with basement waterproofing.
Basement Waterproofing in Orland Park
Of course, each home in Orland Park is to be treated as a specific case but there are three basic approaches to basement waterproofing that will solve 99% of homeowners’ problems.
Crack Repair – All but the oldest homes in Orland Park are likely to have poured concrete foundations and the most common source of seepage in those foundations is a non-structural crack in the basement wall. These cracks can be permanently repaired by injecting them with expanding polyurethane from the interior. The polyurethane seals the crack all the way through the wall and remains flexible when it has cured to prevent the crack re-opening from minor movement of the foundation.
If a finished basement or other obstruction makes the crack unreachable from the inside it can be repaired on the exterior with sodium bentonite clay. A small hole is dug next to the foundation at the location of the crack and filled with the clay; it forms a pliable, impenetrable barrier against water on the “positive side.”
Interior Drain Tile – Another common source of seepage in an Orland Park basement is water that is forced through cracks in the basement floor or through the cove joint by hydrostatic pressure under the foundation. This pressure can be alleviated by installing interior drain tile, a system of perforated pipe buried in washed stone under the basement floor, which will also move the ground water to a sump pump for disposal. When properly installed, interior drain tile is maintenance-free.
Exterior Waterproofing – Concrete foundations can experience water infiltration through patches of porous concrete or over top of the wall; masonry foundations through deteriorating mortar joints or porous masonry units such as concrete block or brick. These problems can be repaired by applying an exterior waterproofing membrane, a thick coating of asphalt-modified polyurethane that is troweled onto the outside of the wall to form a permanent water barrier.
If the water problem is extreme, the membrane may be augmented by installing exterior drain tile and drainage board that will protect the membrane and channel water down to the drain tile.
Regardless of the required repair, an Orland Park homeowner with water in the basement needs the help and advice of an experienced basement waterproofing contractor. At U.S. Waterproofing, we have been keeping basements dry all over the Chicago area since 1957 and we have added hundreds of Orland Park homeowners to our list of more than 300,000 satisfied customers. Please ask for our free advice.
