Wet Basement and Crawlspace Solution in Nortonville, KY

Tuesday, June 7th, 2016 by Cassi Sherman Henes

Challenge

Nortonville, KY and most of Hopkins County has groundwater intrusion issues. This home was no exception, but presented some unique challenges to the homeowners. The home was constructed with a partial basement and partial crawlspace. The homeowners had noticed that the crawlspace section was damp and muddy, so they attempted to remediate the issue in the crawlspace and they noticed that the basement began to flood. Out their wits end, they contacted Healthy Spaces to come out and propose a solution that would keep both the crawlspace and basement dry.

Solution

The Healthy Spaces Design Specialist evaluated the basement and the crawlspace and determined that both areas would need waterproofing, but that the waterproofing would need to take two different forms--EZFlow drainage for the crawlspace and Waterguard for the basement. The proposal included a full interior perimeter drainage system to capture both the wall moisture and the groundwater seeping up along the seam between the wall and floor. This would be a perfect application for Waterguard. The water from that system would be directed into a SuperSump and be pumped out of the basement through a rigid plastic discharge line 20 feet and down-grade from the basement.

The crawlspace, on the other hand, would need a drainage system that could receive groundwater intrusion from any angle in the dirt and then direct that water into the SuperSump sump pump system and be removed from the basement. In addition to the water removal, the crawlspace also needed to be sealed off from the dirt to keep the relative humidity low. The homeowners decided to have SilverGlo insulation and CleanSpace vapor barrier installed to make the crawlspace a conditioned space.

After the installation of both components was complete, the homeowners were thrilled to see an energy savings as well as a dry basement and crawlspace!

Project Summary

Owner: Tim Runyon

Project Manager: Scott Thompson

Here, you can see the area from the basement that leads to the crawlspace as Cleanspace is being installed

Here's a great example of how SilverGlo can be applied to the crawlspace walls to make a crawlspace more energy efficient.

Now, the Cleanspace will be installed over the floor and up the walls.

Here's the area where the SuperSump will be installed. You can see that the sump bucket is rigid plastic and very durable!

Here's the completed SuperSump pump and discharge line system.

About the author

Cassi Sherman Henes

Cassi holds over 15 years experience in the construction, real estate, and education industries. She is certified in foundation repair technology, soil dynamics, and system design from the Foundation Supportworks Institute.

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