How Basements Can Get Wet

In Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia homes, you may have seen moisture seeping into your or your neighbors' home through their foundation or basement. Moisture seeps through cracks and can destroy any valuable furnishings or materials left in storage.

But why does this happen?

It's usual in construction to dig a hole for the foundation larger that it needs to be. That extra space is filled with "backfill" - soil that’s been removed and then replaced as the part of the construction. This soil can never be as hard-packed as the unexcavated original soil surrounding it. It’s looser, more porous, and a great deal more absorbent of water.

Additionally, a few foundations intrude on beds of natural bedrock that are directing water to springs and other water sources. If your foundation stands in the way of the natural track of this water, it’s going to build up against the foundation. To make matters worse, as the earth around the house settles, it begins to settle and pack lower than the original earth. As the water courses downhill into this lower basin, it pools and absorbs into the dirt around the foundation.

It’s no surprise that when it rains, water collects more in the immediate area around your foundation. Since you've put a house in this hole, it’s no different. The water in this basin is going to try to go anywhere possible, seeping through any opening or crack that is available.

If pressure from the cracks formed on your basement walls during construction go all the way through, it's nearly inevitable that water will find it's way through to the inside. As water continues using these cracks, they will get larger through erosion and natural expansion and contraction.

Through this website, we offer several solutions to this problem - both preventative and corrective.

Please contact us for a free inspection and estimate - either on your existing home, or any planned construction.