A home’s basement can take water for a variety of reasons. The most common reasons for damp or flooded basements are a high water table, a drainage problem, or a damaged foundation.
There are two ways to avoid this when finishing a basement. One way is to wrap the room in 3mil or thicker vapor barrier before installing fiberglass insulation. Fiberglass makes for excellent, cheap insulation, but it’s like the nightmare child of a cotton ball and a kitchen sponge.
It absorbs water easily and takes forever to dry out. Buy a vapor barrier between the cinder-block and the insulation; you can be sure it won’t get damaged and waterlogged from normal humidity.
Flooding or a cracked wall could still cause problems and damage the insulation.
Waterproof basement paint is a temporary fix, not a long-term solution. However, if you will soon be selling your home, or simply don’t have the cash to afford a french drain or a new vapor barrier, any of the all-in-one waterproofing paints can be the perfect product to fight moisture, and prevent even more expensive damage. It’s the home-repair equivalent of Tylenol–it won’t permanently fix what’s hurting, but it will get you through until you can see a professional.
Most waterproofing solutions involve redirecting water away from your foundation, and this is no different. Water always runs down-hill. In an ideal situation, your home would be situated like a pitcher’s mound in the center of your lot, with the ground gently sloping away, and the lawn graded as a mild slope from your front porch to the street.
Changing a house’s grade requires several tons of soil and is outside the scope of a DIY project unless your friends can lend you a dump truck and a backhoe. That said, contractors could regrade most houses in a day or two. Once a proper grade is established, water will naturally flow away from your home instead of collecting it in your basement.
Hopefully, the information provided has been a big help in providing assistance for preventing water issues in your basement.
