All-Dry of the Carolinas Case Studies: Greenville, SC basement gets WaterGuard

Challenge

This house in Greenville, SC was sitting on a hill, with the front of the house leaning into the hill. From the front of the house the basement isn’t visible like it is in the back. Since the front part of the home’s foundation was underground, it is more likely to take in ground water. That is the case in this situation; ground water was seeping through the front foundation into the basement causing a real mess. There was clear evidence of water damage when our design specialist Jonathan Geddie showed up to give the home a look. The basement’s wall paint had begun to chip, there was a buildup of sand that would leak in with the water, and water stains were all over the concrete floor and walls.

Solution

This issue was quickly becoming a pain to the homeowners so they decided to go with the solution that Jonathan had quoted them.  Jonathan quoted them a combination of waterproofing technology that consisted of WaterGuard, CleanSpace Wall, and a SuperSump Pump.

Once the basement was cleaned and ready for work, our crew led by crew foreman Will Harris, started to add WaterGuard to the perimeter of the basement. To add WaterGuard our crew had to jackhammer the perimeter of the basement to create a trench for the WaterGuard to be placed in. WaterGuard is then placed into the trench sloping so that water caught in it will flow to the SuperSump Pump that is later placed into the basement. WaterGuard works as a drainage systems for water that comes into the basement through the foundation. It is designed to not to sit in dirt, unlike most draining systems, it has a wall flange that keeps space between the floor and wall allowing water seepage to drain through the WaterGuard without getting clogged. Once the WaterGuard is installed into the trench and is stable, it is then covered with cement to make it invisible and convenient for the space.

The SuperSump is placed into a dug out hole where it is placed even with the floor. The extra space that surrounds the pump is then filled with gravel and topped with cement leaving only the top of the pump visible. The WaterGuard drains into the space where the SuperSump Pump is and is then flushed from the basement by the pump.

CleanSpace was added to the walls of the basement as a bib for the water. As ground water would seep through the foundation it would drip down the walls into the floor. With CleanSpace being on the walls it works as a guide to push the water into the WaterGuard at the base of the wall. This method keeps water from splashing into other areas and to help make the basement look better.

Once these products were installed in this basement, the homeowners now had a storage space that they could use without the fear of water intrusion.