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Clay Bowl Effect
Did you know that there is a big difference in exterior foundation waterproofing treatments? You probably think that your new home foundation has been waterproofed. You saw your contractor spray on black sealer and believe you are in good shape. What you don't know is that fewer than 1 in 50 houses in the your area's housing market have waterproofed foundations. Most are only damproofed.
What's the Difference?
Concrete soaks up water. If you place moist earth around an unprotected foundation, your basement will be damp. Surely you have been in an older basement and smelled this moisture. Older homes rarely had any treatment on the concrete or stone.
Beginning in the 1950's there was widespread use of asphalt on new foundations. This was hand brushed or troweled onto a new foundation by laborers. The asphalt did a great job of minimizing water soaking into the foundations. However, it did not possess the ability to bridge or fill a crack which may develop in the foundation. After a period of time, asphalt becomes somewhat brittle. When a foundation treated with asphalt cracks, the asphalt cracks too!
Approximately 10 to 15 years ago Owens Corning modified standard asphalt by adding some rubberized compounds. The result was a compound that had a certain amount of flexibility. Other companies developed synthetic rubber compounds that have far greater elasticity than the modified asphalt. Even before either of these products was available, commercial builders used cardboard panels filled with bentonite for waterproofing. Bentonite is a special natural clay product that swells when wet. Water carries the clay into the crack, it swells and plugs the leak! The bottom line is that you can truly waterproof your foundation. It just takes a little homework on your part to select the right product for your particular building situation.
Water naturally flows toward your foundation. This is especially true if you live on a hillside or even a slight slope. Water moves horizontally through soil. Water occupies the void spaces between the particles of soil. The deeper you go into a soil, especially if it is clay, the less space there is for water.
To make matters worse, the soil that is used for backfill around your house is rarely compacted. When it is dumped around your house it has huge amounts of air in it. This dirt was "fluffed" up and filled with air when it was dug from the ground. It can take years for this ground to naturally compact and in some cases, may never completely compact. It may always has more air in it than the soil surrounding it. Since there is less space in the surrounding soil for water, it naturally flows toward your foundation. This is known as the clay bowl effect. If your foundation is not made waterproof, your basement will be wet.
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Contact Tri State Foundation Waterproofing for all your waterproofing needs.
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Tri State Foundation Waterproofing
2901 Route 17K, Bullville, New York
(845) 361-1143
(866) 539-1143
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