Eight Ques­tions Base­ment Water­proof­ing Com­pa­nies Should Ask

Sep 9, 2012 • By Matthew Stock with Ben Shachter.

You’ve final­ly got­ten tired of hav­ing water in your base­ment every time it rains so you’ve called some base­ment water­proof­ing com­pa­nies. We’ve talked about ques­tions you should ask and things you should look for but what is the base­ment advi­sor going to ask you?

Here are 8 Ques­tions Base­ment Water­proof­ing Com­pa­nies Should Ask:

1. How Long Have You Lived in your Home?  This isn’t just idle con­ver­sa­tion. The advi­sor real­ly wants to know this to under­stand your his­to­ry with the home. If you’ve lived there for 20 years, your rec­ol­lec­tion of base­ment water prob­lems will like­ly be very thor­ough. If you moved in last month, he’ll be aware that the lat­est water prob­lem could have been the first.
2. How Often Have You had Water Prob­lems? Is this the first time? First time this year? Anoth­er in a series of prob­lems that dates back ten years? Does it hap­pen every time it rains? This infor­ma­tion will make it eas­i­er to find the source of the seepage.
3. Where do You Find Water on the Floor? This one is fair­ly obvi­ous but it pays to be pre­pared, maybe even take some pic­tures. The water on the floor may not be direct­ly relat­ed to the source of the seep­age but, chances are, it’ll be close. This infor­ma­tion will help the advi­sor track down the ulti­mate source.
4. How Much Water do You Get? Is it cov­er­ing your entire floor or just cre­at­ing a wet spot next to the wall – or is it some­where in between? This will also help deter­mine the source – a small wet spot might emanate from a floor crack, the cove joint or a wall crack. A larg­er pud­dle might be the result of a flood­ed win­dow well or a failed sump pump.
5. Have You Made any Major Changes to Your Home Late­ly? Have you had a sew­er line installed or repaired? Done major land­scap­ing around the home? Put on an addi­tion or built a deck or patio? Any of these things can cre­ate a seep­age prob­lem and the advi­sor will need to know to rec­om­mend the best solution.
6. What are Your Plans for the Base­ment? Are you plan­ning on fin­ish­ing the base­ment into a fam­i­ly room or man cave? Think­ing about putting in a work­shop? Going to leave it unfin­ished and use it for stor­age? Your plans for the space will help deter­mine the extent of repairs that may be nec­es­sary. If you’re going to remod­el, an inte­ri­or drain tile sys­tem with vapor bar­ri­ers for the walls is prob­a­bly a good idea but may be overkill if you’re just going to store box­es and lawn furniture.
7. Are You Plan­ning any Major Land­scap­ing or Oth­er Out­side Improve­ments? Are you going to put in plant­i­ng beds around the house? Plan­ning a paver patio, wood­en deck or retain­ing wall? A pool? New dri­ve­way? Any of these things can and will affect yard drainage and will require prop­er water man­age­ment to avoid cre­at­ing a seep­age prob­lem in your basement.
8. How Much Time Do You Spend Main­tain­ing Your Home? Do you clean your gut­ters reg­u­lar­ly? Mow your own lawn and main­tain your own land­scap­ing? Nobody’s judg­ing you on your answers but it’s impor­tant to know whether you lean toward a DIY or main­te­nance-free lifestyle because some seep­age fix­es require reg­u­lar atten­tion and oth­ers can be safe­ly left to work on their own.

Is There Any­thing Else I Should Do?

In addi­tion to being pre­pared to answer these ques­tions, it’s a good idea to be ready in a few oth­er areas as well:

Since the advi­sor will like­ly want to con­duct a hose test around your foun­da­tion, have the gar­den hose available. 

Clear the area in your base­ment around the seep­age. Even the most ded­i­cat­ed water­proof­ing expert shouldn’t have to move box­es and fur­ni­ture to inves­ti­gate the problem.

Don’t start tear­ing your base­ment apart. First of all, it may not be nec­es­sary to remove dry­wall or car­pet or any­thing else; wait until you hear the advisor’s rec­om­men­da­tion. Also, signs of water dam­age may help trace the source of the seepage.

The pro­fes­sion­al base­ment advi­sors at U.S. Water­proof­ing always con­duct a thor­ough inves­ti­ga­tion of water prob­lems for every home­own­er they meet. If your base­ment water­proof­ing com­pa­ny isn’t ask­ing you the right ques­tions, maybe you should ask for our free advice before you sign on the dot­ted line.

Tags: basement waterproofing facts, how to choose a waterproofing company, basement waterproofing estimate, basement waterproofing companies

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