Hi Dan, Is your basement cement block? If so, probably breeze block.
The thing about waterproofing cement is that you need to create a continuous waterproof membrane. It is best on the outside. Cement and mortar is porous. It transmits water. Actually capillary action will draw water through it from areas of higher concentration to areas of lower. Additionally, hydraulic pressure will accelerate osmotic pressure. You have already figured out what happens when water lies against a concrete wall. It will even wick up through a concrete floor which is why laying boards on concrete will result in damp unless the soil under the floor is very dry. Plastic, like a poly bag will very often condense moisture on it's underside when laying on an otherwise apparently dry concrete floor. To truly dry a basement you must either provide an easier path for water to escape than through your walls or deflect it away from the basement altogether or provide a continuous vapour barrier preferably on the outside so moisture is unable to collect on the back side of the barrier or all three. Hydraulic pressure under a basement floor is often responsible for lifting paint. People up here slather tar all over block and poured basement walls but sooner or later it develops cracks and water will then penetrate. It does not require a crack and plugging a crack may only slow the water. Water will ultimately leach the lime out of mortar. sometimes Portland cement is added to mortar which will slow that process but it hardens and stiffens the mortar and reduces it's pliability. Unless you are willing to excavate all around the exterior walls and provide crushed rock and weeping tile and apply a really good membrane you might as well accept that moisture will appear under certain conditions. There is now a form of glass fiber board which is woven to shed water away from the foundation though I couldn't find it when I was looking several years ago. Block walls will often collect water within the cavities. this will more happily drain into the house than back out into the damper soil outside. Pardging or otherwise treating the inside of a basement wall against moisture never succeeds for very long unless the exterior circumstances are fixed. ----- Original Message ----- From: Dan Rossi To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 11:16 AM Subject: Re: [BlindHandyMan] Tuck Pointing? RJ, thanks. I am just curious as I've noticed some rotting mortar joints in my basement. I had the entire outside of the house pointed last year, and am now considering what to do, if anything, about the foundation. We were getting a bit of water seepage in one area of the basement, but I figured out that the problem was that one of our down spouts had blocked up and water was jetting out of the side of it and had washed away a bunch of dirt right against the house. I fixed that and the seepage has stopped. I guess I will type more about that little project under separate heading. Thanks. -- Blue skies. Dan Rossi Carnegie Mellon University. E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: (412) 268-9081 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.5.4/1566 - Release Date: 7/22/2008 6:00 AM [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
