"Your house is only as healthy as your basement"
The exterior walls are excavated to the footing level. Paraseal membrane is installed to all of the exposed exterior walls. The membrane provides a waterproof barrier to keep water and dampness outside. This step is critical in order to ensure that the basement walls stay dry and mold free. Interior style french drains do not provide a membrane on the outside of the foundation, and will allow water to easily seep through the porous block walls and into the basement. Sometimes thermal insulation is applied to the exterior walls since they are already exposed. The cost of the insulation is small, while fuel savings and comfort will increase over time. Below is a photo of the Paraseal membrane as it is being installed to this house. Notice the lower portion of the membrane is curved outward. This causes the water to completely bypass the ninety degree junction where the block walls meet the foundation. In many homes, that junction is a place where water can also enter the basement. Our exterior system eliminates this possibility. 
Base material is then installed to allow for a pavingstone patio and new steps. Pinning the foundation is important to prevent future settling. Below are photos of the patio in progress and at it's completion. Once the elevations are set, quarry process is brought in and compacted in layers to provide a stable base for the project. Long iron screed bars are used to ensure that the pavingstone is perfectly smooth and sloping properly away from the house. We chose to tie in a surface catch basin at the lowest point of the patio to drain surface water away from the lawn.
My neighbor's water drains onto my property.
What can I do?
This photo below is the front of this house at the start of the job. Due to the severity of the seeping water, combined with a relatively level lot, our foundation drain is designed to extend around the perimeter of the house.
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Is an Exterior solution right for me?
This house in Livingston, New Jersey is positioned near the bottom of a long, but not so steep grade. Due to the long grade behind the house, combined with poor soil conditions, this house would receive a steady flow of underground water which would infiltrate the crawlspace and lower level. The rear yard also remained saturated for long periods and would occasionally hold about six inches of water. Of course the problem became more acute during prolonged rainfalls. Bobcats for Hire designed and installed a complete drainage system to permanently dry up the crawl space as well as drain the rear yard areas. We were later told that two other contractors had previously "fixed" the problems. Our system is designed to keep the water out of the house before it ever has a chance to go in. We used a combination of foundation drains, French Drains, and surface drains to route the seeping and surface water away from the house. Engineers agree that this is by far the best way to solve a leaky basement problem. Water is diverted away, and not seeping through walls to be collected in a basement sump. An exterior foundation drain will help to remove dampness and mold caused by moist walls. 
The project began by removing the old concrete patio. This allows the drainage system to be installed at it's optimal location right up against the existing foundation wall. Our Hydraulic breakers are used to easily break up the concrete. Once the patio is removed, excavation for the exterior foundation drain can begin. Notice the dampness on the exterior of the block wall in the photo above. Our exterior system installs a waterproof membrane to prevent this dampness from entering your home. 
Once the exterior membranes are applied, insulation, piping, granular, wide roll protective fabric, and crushed stone are installed to the exterior foundation drain. Because this process is done with equipment outside, an exterior drain may have as much as ten times the quantity of stone and capacity as an interior system. this is because the installers of an interior system must remove concrete and dirt by hand from the basement (by the pail load) and then lug in full pails of crushed stone and cement to fill back in the hole they've created. Naturally, an interior installer wishes to minimize that hand work and the result is often an undersized system. On the contrary, an exterior system is installed using heavy equipment, so there is no shortage of stone or system capacity. This is just one reason why an exterior gravity system is more effective than an interior drain. There are many other reasons why an exterior foundation drain is better for your family. Click here to see for yourself.
Crawlspace will be dry and mold free!
The patio and steps are now complete (Above). This house will no longer have water seeping into the crawlspace or lower level, and now has a beautiful back yard area that will be dry and optimal for entertaining. The front walkway is completed following the installation of the drainage system (Below). Drainage problems are history at this house! Call Bobcats for Hire to professionally solve your water problems today.
French Drainage Systems - Click here to see how they work |
