Evansville, IN Block Wall Basement Waterproofed

Challenge

This Evansville, IN home is not unusual.  It's foundation is composed of concrete blocks like approximately 67 percent of the surrounding homes.  Older homes (accounting for approximately 12%) will often have baked red/rose brick foundations and the newer homes will often have poured concrete foundation walls.  Block foundation wall construction is quite versitile and economical for building various home styles, so it has remained popular throughout Vanderburg county.  

There are unique concerns with block foundations, though, including how they leak when placed in an area with high groundwater.  It is not uncommon for block walls to fill up with groundwater and hold it, leaking throughout the year and causing mineral deposits called effloresence.  

This particular Evansville, IN home has been dealing with a particularly difficult set of circumstances in their basement.  First off, the basement itself is classified as a cellar or root cellar, as opposed to a what we think of as a basement.  There is a cement floor and a slightly reduced ceiling height.  The space is 6' 6" tall, which is over two feet taller than a crawlspace, but about 6" shorter than a classically defined basement.

Solution

The homeowners would like be able to use the root celler for storage, but the constant influx of water was making that impossible.  They are also considering wall protection of some sort, but are hesitant to lose the root cellar's in wall alcoves.  Scott Thompson, a systems design specialist with Healthy Spaces, created a custom waterproofing system to dry out the basement and make it usable for storage.

First, the installation team installed a full perimeter drainage system called Waterguard.  They installed 107 linear feet of Waterguard and two inspection ports, as well as six weep holes in the walls to direct wall moisture effectly into the Waterguard system.  Next, they installed a SuperSump sump pump system with a rigid discharge line to expel the water from the basement.  

Project Summary

Owner: Tim Runyon

Project Manager: Scott Thompson

Project Foreman: Steven Joseph, Jr