3 Methods of Wet Basement Waterproofing in Buffalo Grove, IL 60089
The Buffalo Grove IL of the 21st Century strikes the visitor as the stereotypical suburb with lots of traffic, big box stores, fast food emporia and large tracts of modern housing. A quick dip into the community’s history, however, reveals its origins as a farm town that took longer than most to develop and incorporate.
Named after an early sighting of bison enjoying a watering hole on what is now called Buffalo Creek, Buffalo Grove’s first non-native settlers came from New England but were quickly replaced by German immigrants. The names of many of these families, like Weidner, Raupp and Spoerlein, are preserved in the village today.
Available farmland was the draw for these immigrants and farming was the major industry in Buffalo Grove’s early days, especially dairy farming, which led the Weidner family to open a cheese factory on Dundee Road. The town’s oldest building, St. Mary’s Church, is a village landmark; its second oldest, opened as Little Mike’s Tavern, now houses Lou Malnati’s restaurant.
Buffalo Grove is now the home to more than 41,000 residents but achieving that population is a relatively recent development. At the time of its incorporation in 1958, the village had only 164 residents but leapt to nearly 1500 within two years and continued to grow as new residential real estate development pushed the village boundaries in both Cook and Lake Counties.
Homes in those developments, of course, are aging and owners are facing the typical maintenance and repair problems that brings. Many, in fact, are finding themselves in need of wet basement waterproofing.
3 methods of Wet Basement Waterproofing in Buffalo Grove
Just as in neighboring Arlington Heights and Deerfield, homes in Buffalo Grove are diagnosed on a case-by-case basis to do wet basement waterproofing but there are 3 methods that cover almost every situation.
1. Interior Drain Tile – A common source of water in a Buffalo Grove basement is when hydrostatic pressure under the foundation forces water through cracks in the basement floor or the cove joint. Installing interior drain tile, perforated pipe buried under the basement floor in a bed of washed stone, will alleviate the pressure and the pipe will carry ground water to a sump pump for disposal. Installed properly, interior drain tile requires no maintenance.
2. Crack Repair – A frequent source of water in a poured concrete basement is a non-structural crack in a foundation wall. The best way to repair such a crack permanently is to inject it with expanding polyurethane, which expands to fill and seal the crack all the way through the width of the wall. The polyurethane remains flexible when cured to prevent the crack being re-opened by minor foundation movement.
If the crack can’t be reached on the inside, it can be repaired on the exterior with sodium bentonite clay. A small hole is dug down to the footings at the site of the crack and filled with the clay, which forms a pliable yet permanent barrier against ground water infiltration.
3. Exterior Waterproofing – The poured concrete foundations commonly found in Buffalo Grove can admit water over the top of the wall or through patches of porous concrete; masonry foundations seep through bad mortar joints or porous masonry units like concrete block or brick. This seepage can be stopped permanently by installing an exterior waterproofing membrane, a thick coating of asphalt-modified polyurethane that is applied to the foundation wall with a trowel to form a permanent water barrier.
When ground water is extreme, the membrane can be supplemented with exterior drain tile and drainage board that protects the membrane and channels water downward.
No matter which method is appropriate, a Buffalo Grove homeowner that needs wet basement waterproofing will require the help of an experienced basement waterproofing contractor. At U.S. Waterproofing, we’ve been keeping basements dry all over Chicagoland since 1957 and have already helped many Buffalo Grove homeowners with their basements. Why not ask for our free advice?
