How Team­work Helps When Water­proof­ing a Basement

Mar 4, 2012 • By Matthew Stock.

In order to achieve your goal of a dry base­ment, a lit­tle team­work between you (the home­own­er) and the base­ment water­proof­ing com­pa­ny that you end up hir­ing can go a long way. A real long way. We were all born with two ears and one mouth. And there’s good rea­son for that – good lis­ten­ing skills are one of the most impor­tant traits of a suc­cess­ful waterproofer.

When a water­proof­ing com­pa­ny arrives at your home, you assume they must be an expert. The truth is that some are, and some aren’t. The real experts are those who take the time to learn your unique base­ment seep­age issues.  This way you end up with a cus­tomized solu­tion to fit your par­tic­u­lar needs. Some com­pa­nies don’t believe in that — they just want to give you a canned sales pitch and a one-size-fits-all solu­tion. Rarely is that the best way to water­proof a basement.

Here are some help­ful tips on how you can team up with a base­ment water­proof­ing com­pa­ny to achieve your goal of a dry basement:

1. A lit­tle his­to­ry is need­ed. It begins with how long you have lived at your home and when the water prob­lem start­ed. If the prob­lem just start­ed, it’s impor­tant to deter­mine what might have changed. Address­ing these issues may help pre­vent addi­tion­al prob­lems in the future.

2. Make sure to fol­low the rep­re­sen­ta­tive into your base­ment. Remem­ber, this is prob­a­bly the first time they have ever stepped foot in your house. And there’s a good chance they might not be there when it is rain­ing. The more input you can pro­vide, the bet­ter. Show them which wall(s) is leak­ing. Tell them how much water accu­mu­lates on your floor. A few inch­es of water in an iso­lat­ed area tells a much dif­fer­ent sto­ry than sev­er­al feet. What­ev­er you do, don’t just let them make blan­ket assumption.

3. Go for a walk around the out­side of the prop­er­ty. Here you are often able to see the caus­es of the prob­lem, whether it is improp­er water man­age­ment from the gut­ters and down­spouts, or a clogged win­dow well that caused your base­ment to flood. Iden­ti­fy­ing these caus­es may alle­vi­ate major prob­lems down the road.

4. Share with your rep­re­sen­ta­tive the goals for your base­ment. The obvi­ous response is ​“I just want to stop the water from com­ing in”, but usu­al­ly there’s more to the sto­ry. Are you get­ting ready to put your house on the mar­ket? You might want to read this arti­cle if you are! Are you con­sid­er­ing fin­ish­ing your base­ment? Answers to these ques­tions should impact the pro­posed solution. 

If you would like to get a fur­ther edu­ca­tion, I sug­gest read­ing ​“What to Expect from a Base­ment Water­proof­ing Esti­mate”, writ­ten by my col­league Bob Weitzman.

There is no ​“I” in ​“TEAM” at U.S. Water­proof­ing. We’re all about doing the right thing.

Tags: researching companies, u.s. waterproofing, basement waterproofing estimate, how to choose a waterproofing company

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