The basement of your home in York can be one of it’s most important aspects. This is primarily because the basement combines the foundation of the home with the functionality of a cellar. This implies that the basement must be the most stable part of the building since it handles stress from many different sides. For instance, the weight of the homes pushes down on the basement walls while the pressure of the soils outside the building push against the exterior walls. To make things even more difficult, the basement can be built from poured concrete or cinder block construction depending on current construction laws and building methods.
Unfortunately, neither method is perfect and either basement type could develop water seepage or physical flaws that allow water to collect in them. Keeping this water outside the building is the primary purpose of Basement Waterproofing in York. Because there are so many methods for constructing the basement of a home and a large number of reasons that water might leak back into those basements there is no single method of waterproofing that will work for every situation. Ensuring your basement is properly repaired is the primary reason that responsible contractors like Keystone Foundation Repair provide different methods of waterproofing. These fall into two basic categories, interior waterproofing and exterior waterproofing.
Interior Basement Waterproofing in York includes repairs to leaking walls, windows or cracks in the wall or seams. It can also include repairs to floor drainage systems, the installation of sump pumps and the repair of existing drainage systems like the classic French drain. This type of drain is also known as a weeping tile drain or rubble drain. It is composed of a simple ditch or trench around the edges of the basement floor. The trench should be filled with an aggregate and designed so the water can be easily removed.
Exterior waterproofing is a bit more demanding. In most cases it requires some excavation of the soil surrounding the home so the contractor can access the foundation walls. The primary methods of external waterproofing include the application of a polymer sheet, installation of a drainage board or the repair and installation of drainage tiles. One modern method of basement waterproofing uses Urethane foam for filling cracks. In certain cases this application can avoid the need for expensive exterior waterproofing provided the crack is not caused by foundation failure.