Can You Seal a Basement From the Inside?

Waterproofing Basement Walls: Costs and Options

Image: Ohio Basement Systems

Tempted past ads that promise to waterproof your basement? Here's the scoop:

If y'all're trying to figure out how to cure a moisture or musty basement, you're probably curious about advertisements for products that claim to waterproof basement walls. Then you wonder: Is it really possible to dry out a basement just past sealing the walls?

Yes, it is possible — but to make sure you lot're choosing the correct option, you lot need to effigy out if the moisture is coming from the outside, or if it'south actually loftier humidity that'south condensing on the cool walls of your basement.

How to Find Out What'due south Causing the Moisture

Tape a 1-human foot-square slice of aluminum foil to the within of your basement walls, and go out it in identify for 24 hours.

If at that place'southward condensation on the outside of the foil, you have high humidity in your basement. Fix it with a portable room dehumidifier or a whole-house humidifier system instead of waterproofing products.

If the foil has condensation on the within surface (adjacent to the wall), it may be the soil around your firm is naturally clammy from a high water tabular array or poor soil drainage. In that case, waterproofing your basement walls can be useful.

You can waterproof merely your interior walls, which may solve the problem. Or you tin can waterproof your exterior walls, which is a better bet — but more costly.

Hither'due south the scoop on the different types:

4 Types of Interior Waterproofing

1. Concrete waterproofing coatings: These thick coatings are cement-like; once dry, they adhere permanently to concrete and masonry walls. Yous use the blanket with a heavy brush fabricated with tampico bristles — a natural fiber. Swirl the castor at the last stage of application to requite the wall an attractive, finished expect.

   Concrete waterproof coatings can't be applied to previously painted surfaces; check the label. A five- gallon bucket (you add together water to the dry mix) is $xxx-$40 and covers 100 sq. ft.

2. Silicate-based concrete sealers, as well known equally densifiers, are also suitable only for walls that oasis't been painted or sealed. The sealers soak in and chemically react with ingredients in the concrete or brick, forming a hard, waterproof surface.

   Because these are penetrating sealers, they can't flake off or skin, and yous tin can pigment over them (but check the label commencement). Applying a silicate-based sealer with a brush, roller, or sprayer is easy enough for a DIY project. A 1-gallon can is $40-$50 and covers 200 sq. ft., just you lot'll demand at to the lowest degree 2 coats.

3. Waterproofing paint is an acrylic formula, not all that different from ordinary wall paint. But you castor, roll, or spray information technology on much more thickly — one gallon covers merely 75 foursquare feet, not the 300 square feet typical with standard paint.

   Waterproof pigment is fine for DIY awarding. You tin can apply it over painted surfaces, and paint over it once it's cured (1 gal./$35).

4. Plastic sheets and panels are suitable as wall waterproofing just in combination with interior basement drainage systems. They don't stop water from getting through the wall, but they do stop it from ruining things in the basement.

   Water that gets through the wall runs down the back of the plastic, into a drainage organization in the floor. A sump pump moves h2o out of your basement. The entire system is $3,000-$five,000 for a xx-by-20-foot basement room.

TIP: None of these products will work unless cracks and gaps are properly sealed. Then make sure you fill up cracks and gaps less than 1/viii-inch wide with polyurethane caulk made for masonry ($five/ten-oz. tube). Patch wider cracks with epoxy filler.

Your Best Bet: Exterior Waterproofing

The surest way to waterproof your basement walls is a full-scale exterior waterproofing solution. Information technology's also the most expensive — oftentimes $xv,000 to $30,000.

Exterior waterproofing involves excavating all effectually the business firm to the full depth of the foundation walls, then installing a waterproof coating or membrane topped past drainage panels. The panels provide an like shooting fish in a barrel path for water to period down to an outside French bleed at the bottom of your foundation. From at that place, h2o flows by gravity — or with the help of a sump pump — away from your foundation to another office of your property, or into a storm drain.

Related:

• Why Yous Need a French Drain
• 8 Solutions to Mutual Wet-Basement Issues

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Source: https://www.houselogic.com/by-room/basement-attic/water-proofing-basement/

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