Basement Waterproofing System Installed to Prevent Future Leaks in Morehead, Kentucky

Thursday, May 16th, 2024 by Jack Purdon

Challenge

In Morehead, Kentucky there have been record setting rain storms, which have been leaving a lot of basements flooded like this one. This home had a huge basement that had spare bedrooms and storage rooms that received around 1-2 inches of water. While the water was rising, the homeowners had to scramble to move all their important possessions up and away from the dirty water. Not wanting to experience this ever again, the homeowner gave us a call almost immediately. We were happy to get them on the schedule quickly, and get the job done right.

Solution

We started by helping the homeowner move all their possessions from out of the basement, as this was about to get messy and we didn't want to get anything dirty from mud flying everywhere. We then cut all the drywall out about three feet up from the floor to make room for our interior perimeter drainage system, (and also because the drywall was soaked with water). We then dug up trenches in the basement floor along the walls to make room for the WaterGuard drains to be fitted into. As you can see in the pictures, the trenches were full of water immediately after we drilled weeping holes in the coves. While we can sometimes get away with placing WaterGuard's when there's small amounts of water in the trenches, this time we had to manually remove a couple of inches of water from the trenches before fitting the WaterGuard. After we did that, we then fitted the WaterGuard drains down into the trenches and pitched them with gravel. We then installed two TripleSafe sump pumps, with both sumps having an UltraSump 4 battery backup system in case of power outage. This basement was so big and received so much water that we recommended installing the two sump pumps in opposite corners of the basement. We then configured the discharge lines for the sumps to be able to pump out water at a safe location away from the home. Finally, we covered the WaterGuard with a roll of waterproof tape so when we placed fresh concrete over the drains, the concrete didn't seep into the gravel and moisture didn't seep back into the concrete float. The result is a basement that won't have to worry about flooding again.

This fan is working overtime on this water puddle.

This is one of the storage rooms. You can tell the homeowner was scrambling to stack their possession's onto stilts away from the water.

You can see the shop vac that the owners used to try and move water away from the possession's.

This picture shows the trenches filled with water after we drilled weeping holes. This water was just waiting to rise up into the floor if not for our waterproofing system.

This sump pit was also full of water. However it may look frightening, this was a good sign to waterproof the basement.

You can see why we needed to cut the drywall for the WaterGuard drains to be installed. The gravel seen in the trench next to the WaterGuard helps filter water, create space for the water to enter, and helps us adjust the slope/pitch of the system.

This photo shows the waterproof tape we rolled over the drainage system. This tape may seem insignificant, but it will help stop moisture from transferring into the concrete. It will also help us create a nice float of concrete over the system.