Cove Joint Seepage

The cove joint is the junc­ture where the floor and wall meet. With heavy or pro­longed rains, ground water along the foun­da­tion walls and under­neath the base­ment floor can rise, allow­ing water to seep upward through this joint. This is com­mon­ly referred to as hydro­sta­t­ic pressure.

Seal­ing the cove joint is usu­al­ly not rec­om­mend­ed, as it will only allow the pres­sure to build and move else­where. Instead, our Base­ment Advi­sor will rec­om­mend installing a Drain Tile Sys­tem, which is a per­fo­rat­ed pipe embed­ded in washed stone installed beneath the lev­el of the floor. The sys­tem can be installed from either the inte­ri­or or exterior.

An Inte­ri­or Drain Tile Sys­tem is the most com­mon base­ment water­proof­ing solu­tion for cove joint seep­age. The sys­tem relieves the upward pres­sure by col­lect­ing the water beneath the floor and direct­ing it to a sump pump.

An Exte­ri­or Drain Tile Sys­tem can also be used to address cove joint seep­age. The main dif­fer­ence, how­ev­er, is that the hydro­sta­t­ic pres­sure is relieved on the exte­ri­or. This requires that the wall(s) be excavated.

Your Base­ment Advi­sor will be hap­py to dis­cuss with you the ben­e­fits of each water­proof­ing sys­tem. Either sys­tem will accom­plish the same end result – a dry basement!

A func­tion­al drainage sys­tem is key to hav­ing a dry base­ment or crawl­space. A drainage sys­tem is com­mon­ly referred to as Drain Tile (which is not like a floor tile!) and is an impor­tant water man­age­ment tool. Drain Tile is sim­ply a per­fo­rat­ed drainage pipe some­times called a French Drain. At the time a home is typ­i­cal­ly con­struct­ed, a Drain Tile Sys­tem is installed on the exte­ri­or of the foun­da­tion at the deep­est part of the exca­va­tion next to the foot­ing (the widened con­crete base the foun­da­tion walls rest on). The Drain Tile is typ­i­cal­ly con­nect­ed to a sump pump locat­ed in the inte­ri­or of the home which col­lects and dis­charges the water harm­less­ly away from the building.

Over time Exte­ri­or Drain Tile Sys­tems fail due to the ele­ments. Small par­ti­cles mixed in with the soil (fines or silt) can find their way into the sys­tem and cause recur­ring clog­ging issues. Also tree roots can infil­trate mak­ing the sys­tem ineffective. 

What is an Inte­ri­or Drain Tile System? 

An Inte­ri­or Drain Tile sys­tem serves the same pur­pose as an exte­ri­or sys­tem except it is less impact­ed by the ele­ments. Installed on the inside of the home next to the foun­da­tion’s foot­ing and beneath the base­ment floor. This sys­tem pro­vides a much longer life expectan­cy at a low­er installed cost.

This sys­tem address­es seep­age by col­lect­ing water that comes up from beneath the base­ment floor and through foun­da­tion walls. 

How is an Inte­ri­or Drain Tile Sys­tem installed? 

U.S. Water­proof­in­g’s For­ev­er Flow Drain Tile Sys­tem pro­vides a dual fil­tra­tion process which makes it a per­ma­nent main­te­nance free solu­tion for keep­ing your base­ment or crawl­space dry. 

The sys­tem is installed by remov­ing the edge of the con­crete floor (about a foot from the foun­da­tion wall). Once the floor is removed, a trench is dug along­side the foot­ing and a lay­er of washed stone is placed at the base of the trench. A 4‑inch per­fo­rat­ed pipe (Drain Tile), pro­tect­ed by a fil­ter sock, is laid in the trench and then sur­round­ed with more washed stone. 

Our sys­tem is then con­nect­ed to a sump basin where a sump pump dis­charges the water to a suit­able location.

While many homes are equipped with a sump pump that can han­dle this addi­tion­al water, some are not. U.S. Water­proof­ing offers a full line of both pri­ma­ry sump pumps and bat­tery back­up sump pumps as well as basins that we can size to your needs. 

Unique to the water­proof­ing indus­try our exclu­sive Hol­low Cove Mold­ing (an L — shaped vinyl base­board) is installed atop the foot­ing against the foun­da­tion wall. Any seep­age from the foun­da­tion wall will drain down behind the cove mold­ing and into the For­ev­er Flow Drain Tile System.

The floor is then patched with con­crete to com­plete the installation. 

Why choose U.S. Waterproofing? 

Total peace of mind. We start with a free in-home con­sul­ta­tion where one of our high­ly trained Advi­sors will pro­vide you with a prop­er diag­no­sis, detailed repair plan, and cost of repair.

Next, we assign a Field Super­vi­sor to vis­it your home and review the project. Your Field Super­vi­sor can answer all your ques­tions pri­or to sched­ul­ing the work.

We know home improve­ment projects can be over­whelm­ing, espe­cial­ly if your base­ment is fin­ished. To lessen your stress we also offer a full line of job prep ser­vices to help you through the com­ple­tion of your project. 

Our For­ev­er Flow Drain Tile Sys­tem comes with a life­time trans­ferrable war­ran­ty (for res­i­den­tial home­own­ers). Since 1957, U.S Water­proof­ing has been com­mit­ted to unmatched cus­tomer ser­vice and get­ting the job done right the first time. We stand by our work and have over 500,000 sat­is­fied cus­tomers to our name. To find out if Inte­ri­or Drain Tile is the right solu­tion for your home, sched­ule your free con­sul­ta­tion online today!

Learn more about Inte­ri­or Drain Tile Systems.

U.S. Water­proof­ing is a com­pre­hen­sive, full ser­vice water­proof­ing com­pa­ny. What we mean by that is we don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all solu­tion. In many sit­u­a­tions, we have found that exte­ri­or water­proof­ing is the most effec­tive solu­tion as it stops water fil­tra­tion right at source of the problem.

What are Exte­ri­or Water­proof­ing Membranes? 

An Exte­ri­or Water­proof­ing Mem­brane is a water­proof bar­ri­er applied below ground and to the out­side of the foun­da­tion. This is some­times done with sol­id sheets to pre­vent water from enter­ing, but sheets cre­ate seams, and those seams cause leaks over time that let water into your home. Instead, we use a flex­i­ble, seam­less, polyurethane liq­uid mem­brane that is applied with a hand trow­el. Once the mate­r­i­al cures (dries), it pro­vides a seam­less coat­ing that doesn’t leak and is impen­e­tra­ble to water. 

When would Exte­ri­or Water­proof­ing Mem­branes be used? 

It’s some­times imprac­ti­cal or unde­sir­able to water­proof a base­ment from the inte­ri­or. Below are rea­sons for Exte­ri­or Water­proof­ing Membranes:

• Seep­age over the top of the foun­da­tion — if the dirt or paving lev­el reach­es above the top of the foun­da­tion wall, it may allow water to seep into your home through the joint where your house sits atop the foundation
• Hon­ey­combed con­crete — Hon­ey­combed con­crete can form as soon as the foun­da­tion is con­struct­ed and usu­al­ly exists because the con­crete was mixed and con­sol­i­dat­ed poor­ly, leav­ing areas of the foun­da­tion wall that is jagged, coarse, and stony. These porous areas are com­mon areas for water intrusion
• Mason­ry foun­da­tions — when a home has a brick or stone foun­da­tion—often the case in old­er homes — the mor­tar hold­ing these walls togeth­er erodes due to water and can crack over time. An Exte­ri­or Water­proof­ing Mem­brane is the pre­ferred method as inte­ri­or water­proof­ing only traps the water and does noth­ing to pre­vent fur­ther dete­ri­o­ra­tion of the wall 
• Pre­serv­ing the base­ment and its many func­tions — a fin­ished base­ment is often used by the whole fam­i­ly, be it kids play­ing down there or adults enjoy­ing a home the­ater or a bar. Exte­ri­or Water­proof­ing Mem­branes does­n’t require pan­el­ing / dry­wall removal, or oth­er con­struc­tion incon­ve­niences, which means your base­ment stays intact and undisturbed

How does Exte­ri­or Water­proof­ing work? 

When exces­sive rain soaks into the soil, it cre­ates water­proof­ing prob­lems. The process of attack­ing the root of the issue starts with dig­ging a trench out­side the foun­da­tion, which is usu­al­ly done by hand to min­i­mize dis­rup­tions to land­scap­ing and oth­er areas around your home. We then apply a heavy-duty mem­brane coat­ing that cov­ers the foun­da­tion wall. Once that pro­tec­tive coat­ing dries, a seam­less bar­ri­er is formed to keep water out. Last­ly, we back­fill the trench with the exca­vat­ed soil.

When would Exte­ri­or Water­proof­ing not be the best solution?

Some­times, there are obstruc­tions on the exte­ri­or that are either too cost­ly or imprac­ti­cal to move. Exam­ples include decks, addi­tions or attached garages. We also need enough space to dig a trench and tem­porar­i­ly store the exca­vat­ed earth. Last­ly, if water is seep­ing through cracks in your base­ment floor, an Inte­ri­or Drain Tile Sys­tem might be the bet­ter solution.

If you think your house might ben­e­fit from exte­ri­or water­proof­ing, or would like fur­ther guid­ance, sched­ule your free con­sul­ta­tion online today.