Reinforcement and Waterproofing of Cracked & Bowing Basement Wall - Woodinville, WA

A single wall in this basement was cracked and bowing from the build up of hydrostatic pressure, caused by water seeping into the walls from the outside. Water seepage into basement walls poses a serious threat to the structural support of homes, because it causes many components to lose strength and stability over time. Our Design Specialist here at John's explained the seriousness of this issue to the owner, and presented him with permanent solutions. Our teams Structural and Waterproofing experts craft individual and specialized job proposals for each and every customer. After a thoughtful explanation of their job proposal by our Design Specialist, the homeowner agreed to the recommended repairs. When our crews arrived to begin work, we first dug out a narrow line around the entire interior perimeter of the basement, forming a trench. Inside the full length of the trench, we set our WaterGuard drainage channel, which will gather all wall water seepage to a sump pump which expels it safely away from the home via a discharge line. Directly onto all of the concrete basement walls, we attached our ThermalDry Vapor Barrier Wall Covering to provide a thermal break for a basement that is getting ready to be finished. This system also ensures that all water seepage through the walls is diverted downward, into the WaterGuard trench below, and sent safely away from the home. The face side of ThermalDry Wall Covering is made of reflective foil to reflect heat back into the home - decreasing heat loss while helping homeowners save money on their electricity bill. On the cracked and bowing wall, we installed 10 SecureLock Interior Wall Braces, directly in front of the ThermalDry Covering. SecureLock Braces are heavy duty I-beams, used to reinforce walls that have suffered structural failure due to hydrostatic pressure build up. On the ground in front of the damaged wall - spaced evenly apart - we dug 10 holes to place each of the Braces floor brackets inside of. The top of each Brace is bolted tightly onto the overhead floor joist. These Braces will remain permanently, to prevent further damage to the wall, and to return structural stability to the home. The final portion of this job was addressing the dirt floor. We began by laying down DrainMatt over the entire floor, to help route all ground water intrusion down to the lowest point, and safely away from the home. On top of the DrainMatt, we built concrete frames, and poured a slab to cover the entire floor as well as the SecureLock Wall Brace Floor Brackets, and then gave the new slab a perfect broom finish. We than keep the relative humidity within a healthy range by installing a SaniDry dehumidifier. The Structural and Waterproofing experts here at John's have now returned strength and stability to a damaged basement, and have protected it from further water damage. This space is now ready to be finished and added as usable space within the homes footprint.