Basement Waterproofing

The average homeowner will be able to spot obvious damage such as leaking, floods, or cracks around their basement. However, there are often other, subtler signs of damage that you might not catch that will help you prevent the worst damage from occurring. 

• Musty Smell  

If you notice a rather rank smell permeating throughout your first floor but nowhere else in your home, it is possible your basement has flooded or is facing other moisture-related issues. It will not help if this space grows overly warm and makes any water or even raw sewage that managed to seep through smell even worse. 

It is also good to keep in mind that this musty smell may come from other additional sources as well. Mold and mildew often tend to give off musty stenches of their own. Pests may also emit certain odors to attract others of their kind to your home as well. 

• Shifting Walls  

Pay attention to any shifts in your home’s infrastructure. Your home’s foundation is meant to keep your home steady and upright. It also keeps the lower levels of your home relatively dry. Of course, if your basement is constantly facing moisture issues, chances are your foundation might also face similar damage without your knowledge. 

When your walls, doorways, or window sills begin to tilt out of alignment, you can bet that the problem lies with your foundation. A shifted or uneven foundation allows more moisture to flood your basement. It is a vicious cycle that only feeds into more property damage. This is why you need to call the basement experts at Innovative Basement Authority to inspect your basement right away! 

Most homeowners are able to recognize when their  current drainage systems are faulty. However, smaller issues can quickly grow out of control, too.  

It can be difficult for homeowners to pinpoint the true origin of these issues. Here are a couple of ways to know your basement is facing any waterproofing issues you might not be able to spot 

• Consider the Climate  

The climates in Midwestern states like Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and eastern Montana all tend to be the same. You face hot, humid summers and cold, snow-laden winters. Both can result in excess moisture soaking into the soil around your foundation and infiltrating your basement. This leads to leaks, flooding, and foundational issues.  

Excess moisture threatening this space can be especially dangerous. A severe storm might wash away the supporting soil under your foundation and cause it to shift or even crack altogether. As a result, you might find your basement flooding more often. 

• Hire a Basement Inspector  

While some projects like painting can be completed through DIY work, basement waterproofing is not one of them. It’s important to have the right solutions at hand to fix the specific problems you are facing with your leaking basement. 

Therefore, you need to leave any basement repairs or installations to the basement experts at Innovative Basement Authority. We have worked in countless basements and implemented several different basement solutions tailor-made for each home. Leave any repairs to us and reap the benefits of a dry basement today!

If you have noticed spreading cracks in your basement flooring, don’t panic. This may be a serious issue, but it is not a disaster. There are many solutions available to fix cracks in a basement floor and prevent them from recurring at a later date. We at Innovative Basement Authority specialize in foundation repair and basement waterproofing measures. Our team is expert in identifying the precise causes of damage and dampness in a basement and will be able to provide you with a solution that is entirely tailored to your property and situation.   

When it comes to fixing a cracked and leaky basement floor there are four basic steps our team always takes.   

Investigation and Drainage 

Investigating the precise causes of cracks in a basement floor is an important step that cannot be missed. If all the contributing factors are not discovered and dealt with, the cracks will simply recur. The list of possible factors include foundation heave, hydrostatic pressure, settlement, and subsidence. Each of these will cause different secondary problem signs to show themselves.  

Our team members are very skilled at identifying underlying causes. Once we know exactly what is causing the cracks in your basement floor, our team will take steps to prepare it for repair. This means draining any standing water in your basement to ensure your space is in the best possible shape to go ahead with repairs.   

Waterproofing and Restoration 

Waterproofing measures are a necessary step when it comes to repairing this kind of damage in your basement. If you have foundation damage, this will need to be repaired before we can finalize the repairs to your basement floor. If your foundation is intact, there are several potential waterproofing measures that can be taken to help manage the water seeping into your property through the cracks in your basement floor.    

Once the source of the cracks has been addressed and the dampness in your basement is under control, our team will restore your floors to their former state. By backfilling cracks and applying fresh concrete, our team will leave you with a smooth and flawless finish. You should let this new layer cure for three days before you walk on it or apply weight to the surface.   

Problem signs often signify damage that has already been done. The most an average homeowner can do after spotting them is to call foundation experts like Innovative Basement Authority to repair these issues. Identifying what causes your walls to tilt or bow in the first place is key to the prevention of further damage. 

• Hydrostatic Pressure 

If you live in a humid or wet climate like Minnesota, North Dakota, and eastern Montana, you may find the soil around your home constantly taking on a lot of water. Severe storms, humidity, and melted snow all contribute to this huge influx of moisture both in the air and condensing around your home. The more water your soil attempts to absorb, the heavier it gets. This can put immense pressure against your foundation, which in turn will cause it to shift or even crack. This is known as hydrostatic pressure. 

Hydrostatic pressure can also crack your foundation from within as well. Moisture might become trapped within your concrete basement walls or foundation. This moisture will freeze in the winter, causing the ice to expand and thus break your foundation. 

• Clay Bowl Effect 

The fault may not even lie with poor foundation maintenance, but a defect that comes from how foundations are constructed. Contractors will dig a large hole in the ground where they plan to lay your home’s foundation and basement. Once these pieces are installed, they will then backfill some of the soil around the remaining space left.  

Unfortunately, this makes the soil much looser than before. This makes it much easier for a heavy storm to wash that soil away. Your foundation will either shift from its original position or settle and crack altogether.  

Moisture can be quite tricky to deal with, especially if it ends up pooling in your basement. Leaks, floods, mold, and other moisture-related issues can certainly be a hassle. You then might want to know how this water is even able to infiltrate your home in the first place. Leaks alone have a variety of causes, leading many Sioux Falls homeowners to look them up, so they can implement repairs to stop them. However, it is always best to leave any repairs to the basement experts at Innovative Basement Authority. We will do a thorough sweep to ensure that we will not miss any possible repairs you might overlook. 

Leaks can form from rainwater or melted snow absorbed in the soil starting to press up against the walls from the outside. This can cause your walls to start leaking over time. Ignoring small leaks is not a good idea whatsoever. They always can expand out wider and flood your crawl space if you do not repair them in time. Similarly, your basement walls might start to bow in from this pressure. This moisture also may stem from broken plumbing pipes, which can create a whole slew of other problems, too. 

Cracks along your basement walls or floor can also allow water to more easily flow into the basement. Indeed, moisture can help to widen cracks even further and thus lead to leaks widening as well. It is a perpetual loop that can only be stopped once you call the experts to repair this damage in your basement as soon as possible. Our interior drainage system is top-notch and can protect your basement against any leaks or large floods. We can also implement other repairs such as closing up cracks.

An interior drainage system will be installed around the inner perimeter of your Twin Cities’ basement, as its name implies. The only visible portion of this system will be the wall flange installed along the wall and floor joint. Most of the water from leaks tends to gather here. The system then will capture any moisture that tries to seep into your basement and redirect it to the powerful sump pump, the heart of the entire drainage system.

The sump pump has a complex float system that lets it know how much water has entered its system. Once it reaches a specific amount, the pump will then activate on its own and work to pump water away from your home. You will not have to worry about rushing to turn it on yourself in the middle of a storm, for instance. Our pumps can drain thousands of gallons of water. Should your power go out during a blizzard, if you have a battery backup attached to the sump pump, it will still keep churning out water, slush, and ice from your home with ease.

It also has an alarm system that will sound once it turns on and when it is running on low battery power. You can call our basement experts to replace the back-up battery so that it will not shut down in the middle of a huge storm. Installation of this system typically takes less than a day and will not interfere with any other pipes around your home. You can enjoy a completely waterproof basement after just a few hours.