3 Ways to Do Wet Basement Waterproofing in Bartlett IL 60103
Bartlett IL is perhaps the ultimate family town. Located in Chicago’s western suburbs, Bartlett is split among three counties – mostly Cook and DuPage with a small piece in Kane County, and is home to nearly 43,000 residents.
Nearly everybody in Bartlett is a homeowner, with only 7% of the population as renters. Nearly everybody in town is on the young side, too – a graph of population age spikes way up among small children and forms a towering bell curve between ages 25 and 50. Consequently, Bartlett boasts of lots of good schools – one pre-school, eight elementary schools, a middle school and a high school.
Homes in Bartlett are pretty young, too. Even though the town’s history extends back to 1892, there were fewer than 1,000 homes there at the dawn of the 1970’s, the post-World War II housing boom having had little effect in Bartlett. The next three decades, however were boom times for housing construction, with nearly 11,000 new homes having been built by the beginning of the 21st century.
Today, there are more than 12,000 homes in Bartlett and, even though the homes are newer than average around the Chicago area, homeowners there still encounter maintenance and repair problems and often need wet basement waterproofing services.
3 Ways to Do Wet Basement Waterproofing in Bartlett
Just like homes in nearby Elgin and Schaumburg, each home in Bartlett is diagnosed individually; there are three wet basement waterproofing solutions that will solve the majority of problems.
1. Interior Drain Tile – Interior drain tile, perforated plastic pipe buried in washed stone next to the foundation footings under the basement floor, relieves hydrostatic pressure that would otherwise cause water to enter the basement through the cove joint or through cracks in the concrete floor. The drain tile carries ground water to a sump pump that removes it from the home. When properly installed, interior drain tile requires no maintenance.
2. Crack Repair – The most frequent source of a wet basement in a poured concrete foundation is a non-structural crack in the wall caused by settling or pressure from over-saturated soil. These cracks can be permanently repaired from the interior by injecting them with expanding polyurethane that completely fills and seals the crack all the way to the outside soil. When it has cured, the polyurethane remains flexible to prevent minor foundation movement from re-opening the crack.
If the crack is inaccessible from the inside, it can be repaired externally by digging a small hole down to the foundation footings at the site of the crack and filling it with sodium bentonite clay. The sodium bentonite sets up to form a pliable yet permanent seal against water.
3. Exterior Waterproofing – Ground water from over-saturated soil can infiltrate a basement over the top of the wall or through porous concrete or masonry such as concrete block or brick, as well as through bad mortar joints. The best way to stop this seepage is to apply an exterior waterproofing membrane to the foundation wall. The membrane, asphalt-modified polyurethane, is troweled onto the outside wall in a heavy coat and forms a permanent barrier against water when it cures. This barrier is not to be confused with “damp-proofing,” a light, sprayed on coating applied generally during construction.
When ground water is especially heavy, the membrane can be supplemented with exterior drain tile and heavy-duty drainage board to protect the membrane and channel water downward.
Regardless of the appropriate method, a Bartlett homeowner who needs wet basement waterproofing requires the help of a basement waterproofing contractor who knows the area and has proven itself to homeowners. At U.S. Waterproofing, we’ve been keeping basements dry all over Chicagoland since 1957; here’s what one Bartlett homeowner had to say about us. Maybe you should ask for our free advice.
