Project date: January 2025
Location: Portland, Oregon
The Challenge
This homeowner was experiencing on and off moisture problems before finishing their basement. They thought it would be fixed by installing new gutters, down spouts and an exterior French drain. A few years later the carpet was wet after rain and the baseboards were swollen with water!
The homeowners use this space a lot and were concerned about mold and health problems associated with water intrusion in a finished living space.
Our Solution
Upon inspection it was discovered that they were experiencing a cold joint leak which is typical, no matter the age of the home. We installed our 18” wide trenching system with 4” self cleaning pipe dumping at our side discharge sump pump basin to extract water from the soil forever.
Before and After Photos
In this photo you can see the mold and mildew present where the couch was pressing down on the carpet pad that was soaking up the water. The baseboards are also discolored from mold and swollen.
Site prep may seem overwhelming but really it goes quite quickly. Once everything is waterproofed the build back only takes a few days! Here is the same wall pictured before prior to removal of concrete.
Removal of the slab showed a vapor barrier underneath. This tells us this floor was repoured likely in the last 20 years. This could have all been avoided and done for much cheaper if a waterproofer had poured the floor.
The slope, or fall, of the trench is always pitched towards the pump. Here we are verifying the fall every 10’ of 1”. You can see the clay footer is never disturbed and any contractor saying it is, is likely trying to sell you a sham of a product based in misleading warranties.
The 4” pipe is placed into the trench before the gravel. The other black pipe is the discharge from the pipe that we run under the slab to minimize intrusion and vibration/noise.
Gravel is filled into the trench up to the bottom of the current floor slab OR 4” from the top. Polycove cold joint diverter (the gray stuff) is installed after the vapor barrier (the white stuff on the wall). This catches any cold joint leaks where the wall meets the floor and any moisture still seeping through the walls while the drainage system dries out the soil forever!
This is the sump pump basin with side discharge. Installing a basin this way makes this closet fully usable while minimizing noise and moisture.
Here you see the finished product prior to replacing the flooring and wall. You can also see the basin discharge in the corner. None of the waterproofing systems will be seen or known once repairs are completed.