photos of basement waterproofing with bx - questions and comments?

[JB4310]

Sorry if I missed it, but how do these inside systems address water entering walls from the outside? Seems like they're a much more convenient way to go about the problem, but are they as effective?

This business is geographically sensitive, we deal almost exclusively with interior footing drain systems, IMO the most reliable effective system. But I understand in other locals it is not the accepted approach.
The area I work in is all concrete foundations, no blocks. Concrete foundations can leak down the wall from cracks or holes but not as much as a block foundation can. Some older concrete foundations or stone foundations can have multiply leaks through the wall, we install what we call a weep joint, which is a geotextile that leaves a gap between the floor and the wall to allow any seepage down the wall to pass down under the floor to the footing drain.

The jobs that Ampsucker and frwinks did are very comprehensive and effective but would be expensive to hire a contractor to do, I would only recommend such an involved job like that for the block foundations like they have.

For a contractor to do a job that involves complete excavation around a house foundation by OSHA standards would be cost prohibitive in most cases. Not impossible, but very expensive, I've heard of jobs like that in the $20,000.+ range, never done one myself.

JB.

 

[NuBota]

DC Area pretty much the same as JB says. I always explain it to people this way. Was doing a job (years ago) - entire inside perimiter and pump - cost homeowner ~ $4K with 20 year standard "no leak" guarantee. Neighbor two houses up, same model house, had company digging up the outside. They came down to talk to us. Cost them $30K and no guarantee of any sort - they were crushed. We also did many houses that had prior outside work done.

It seems counter intuitive to let the water in and then pump it out - but it is virtually guaranteed to keep the basement dry assuming the pump doesn't fail

Did another job where the slab was "floating" on water and the entire yard outside was saturated. After 36 hours of the pump running it actually drained the yard along with the foundation. A good pump can move a lot of water.

And water is funny - we did houses that never had problems for 50+ years and suddenly developed an issue. It is just easier to control the water at the point of entry versus the entire outside environment