Photo Album: Basement Waterproofing in Longueuil, Quebec

Many homeowners in Longueuil regularly suffer from basements with water problems and humidity. Our client in Longueuil had never had a major water infiltration problem, but moisture and the resulting efflorescence on his slab, and the occasional little bit of water trickling down in a corner of his unfinished basement, made him really worried. He is a musician, and most of his work, collections, and instruments among other things are stocked in his basement, and for him, that meant something needed to be done soon. Knowing how important this was to our client our crew worked hard to get the space waterproofed as quickly as possible!

Musical instruments in the basement

Whatever your hobby is, you will probably end up using your basement as storage space when you lack that space in your house. Our client was a musician, you can tell from the picture right?

Efflorescence on a basement slab

This house in Longueuil is no different than many others across Quebec. Probably the earth or gravel under the slab were not covered with a waterproof membrane, thus letting the humidity pass through the slab and leave some efflorescence (minerals) behind it.

Crack in a Longueuil foundation

Not all cracks are the same. This perticular one did not seem to us like a major threat to the foundation, but our client in Longueuil said that water came in a bit during the spring thaw.

Dust in the basement

We do our best to cover our clients' belongings before doing the work, as digging a trench in the concrete (to install the drain) will probably result in dust around the basement. The amount of dust will depend on how big the trench is and on how dry the slab concrete is. We also add a special exhaust fan where necessary.

Digging to install the drain

In many cases, an inside footing drain works better than an outside French drain, as it lasts longer and gets clogged less or even never. Usually we install our internal footing drain on the footing. However, in this case, the client's footing ran parallel to the slab, which is a construction method that is not completely recommended. Usually a slab should run on top of the footing, however in some cases such as when an existing crawlspace is transformed into a basement, the footing is a bit high and instead of digging deeper contractors tend to pour the slab adjacent to the footing.

WaterGuard and CactusBoard installation

Usually our special lifetime-warrantied WaterGuard drain is installed on the footing. In this special situation, we had to install it next to the footing. The results are the same, as we have alternative ways to install it. In this example we installed our CactusBoard drain over the footing, and chanelled the water to the WaterGuard. The system is still warrantied for the life of he structure.

WaterGuard installation in Longueuil

Here is the final result of the installation of the WaterGuard combined with the CactusBoard (visible flange). The cement is still moist right after the work.

Sump pump installation in the basement

You can see here the almost final installation, showing one wall where we ran our internal drain system and installed our TripleSafe sump pump. The WaterGuard runs along the full perimeter of this house, thus giving our client the peace of mind.