Basement Waterproofing in Maryland, DC & Virginia
Total Basement Systems - The Floodbusters has been fixing leaky basements in the greater Baltimore Maryland, Washington DC and Northern Virginia as the authorized Basement Systems dealer since 1991. Over the years we have dried thousands of wet basements. Let us help you fix yours. Call today or email us for a FREE basement waterproofing estimate and inspection.
What Causes Your Basement to Leak
When a home is first built, a hole is dug in the ground. The concrete footing is poured and then the concrete or block walls are built on this - older houses can have stone foundations, but this is even more porous. The seem at which the walls and footing come together is imperfect and prone to leaking.
Basements can leak in their first year after construction, but many don't until years later. This is because at the construction of the home, an exterior drain tile drainage channel is placed in front of the footer around the perimeter of the house to collect water. This water is then drained away by gravity or with a sump pump. Over time this drain tile saturates with silt and mud and becomes clogged. And once this happens, the water that sits around the foundation of your home has no where to go. And when enough water builds up, hydrostatic pressure builds and eventually forces the water through the footing/wall joint and into your basement.
What's the Solution to a Wet Basement?
One solution is to dig up the earth all around the perimeter of your house again and install the same drain tile system. But if it failed once, why won't it fail again?
Actually, it will. Waterproofing contractors that install this antiquated drain tile system (which is simply PVC pipe shown to the right next to WaterGuard) -- mostly because they believe it to be the best solution because old housing code still calls for this method -- will now put a fabric filter around the system to keep silt out. But with no way to change the filter, this method is really no better.
Plus this exterior drain tile costs about twice as much as an interior drain tile system. So is an interior drain tile system the solution?
It's better, because it's cheaper, but no, it has the same clogging problem. Interior drain tile is placed around the perimeter of the basement down in the soil next to the footing on the inside of the house. But again, it sits in the soil, which becomes mud when wet, and this mud flows into the drain tile, eventually clogging it.
The Best Solution for a Wet Basement
The best wet basement solutions are the installation of a system that doesn't sit in the mud. We offer two systems that address this issue: a baseboard drainage system and the WaterGuard basement waterproofing system. These are patented leak repair systems available in Maryland, Washington DC, and Virginia by Total Basement Systems - The Floodbusters.
These perimeter water basement drainage systems are specially created to be highly clog resistant and keep your basement dry. For a free basement waterproofing estimate in Washington DC, Maryland or Northern Virginia, call or contact us online today!
