How to Seal a Basement in Glenview, IL 60025
Glenview is a thoroughly modern Chicago suburb with lots of nice homes, great schools and all the amenities of 21st Century suburban life.
Even with all that, the town hasn’t forgotten its history. Wagner Farm, for example, is a part of a preserved working farm from the 1920’s that belonged to one of Glenview’s early families. The Grove, another preserved estate, is a popular nature center and National Historic Landmark on the site of another early settler’s farm.
Perhaps the most significant piece of local history, though, is the former Glenview Naval Air Station. Built in the 1920’s as Curtiss Field and designed to be the commercial air hub for Chicago, the facility was sold to the U.S. Navy in 1940 and served as a training facility for Navy pilots, including former astronaut Neil Armstrong and Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush.
After World War II, the NAS became a Naval Reserve training base that also housed Marine Corps and Coast Guard aircraft and personnel. In 1993 the base was slated for closure and was eventually turned over to the Village of Glenview and is today the site of “The Glen,” a mixed-use development including residential and commercial buildings and a retail and entertainment center.
While all of this was happening, the village grew up around the Naval Air Station and today has 45,000 residents. Early development means that more than half of Glenview’s nearly 16,000 homes were built before 1970 and that many homeowners are facing the maintenance problems common to older homes, including the need to seal their basements.
How Do I Seal my Basement in Glenview?
Just as in neighboring Northbrook and Mount Prospect, the right way to seal a basement in Glenview depends on the specific home but there are three ways it is commonly done.
Crack Repair – The most common type of foundation in Glenview is poured concrete and the most frequent source of water in the basement in such a foundation is a non-structural crack in a basement wall. These cracks can be repaired permanently by injecting them with expanding polyurethane from inside the basement. The polyurethane seals the crack by filling it completely and remains flexible when cured to prevent minor foundation movement from re-opening the crack.
In a finished basement where the crack can’t be reached from inside, it can be repaired from the exterior by applying a seal of sodium bentonite clay that creates a pliable, permanent water barrier.
Interior Drain Tile – One 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 stone under the basement floor, will alleviate this pressure and carry the ground water to a sump pump for ejection from the house. Properly installed, interior drain tile requires no maintenance.
Exterior Waterproofing – Concrete foundations can leak over the top of the wall or through patches of porous concrete; masonry foundations can also have porous spots and often have cracked or deteriorating mortar joints. All of these sources of water can be sealed by applying an exterior waterproofing membrane, a thick coating of asphalt-modified polyurethane that is troweled onto the exterior foundation wall to form a permanent barrier against water.
In extreme cases, the membrane can be augmented by installing exterior drain tile and drainage board that protects the membrane and channels water downward.
No matter which method is best for a particular home, a Glenview homeowner needs the help of a professional basement waterproofing contractor to permanently seal his or her basement. At U.S. Waterproofing, we have helped hundreds of Glenview homeowners keep their basements dry since our founding in 1957. Why not ask for our free advice?
