John's Waterproofing Case Studies: Out dated Waterproofing System Failed to protect this Portland, OR Basement
Challenge
This homeowner had a bought the home with a drain system already in place, or so they thought. They quickly realized the water was still coming into the basement despite this system being in place. The system was known as a "gutter drain" They used to use this method to direct water to a sump or drain system. This style of the drain is made by laying 2X4's into wet concrete, once cured, they remove the 2X4's and there you have your gutter drain. This, however, is not an efficient way to waterproof. Water will usually enter by the wall and footing in the foundation, or through cracks in the walls or floors and it is usually coming from underneath the cement. By laying this shallow drain on top of the basement floor and inches away from where the water would come in at, made this whole system worthless. The Homeowners found this out the hard way, and that is when they decided to give us a call.
Solution
We came in and dug our interior perimeter trench in the correct location and laid down our Waterguard system along with some pea gravel for filtration and directing the water. We filled the old trench with cement and covered our drain system with cement as well, we then installed our top of the line TripleSafe sump pump. This home is now properly waterproofed and will stay dry for years to come.
