When the average person thinks about home ownership and home improvement, basement waterproofing is probably not the first thing to come to mind. And who can blame them? Basement waterproofing has never been particularly glamorous; but then again, neither is a damp and moldy basement.
There are a variety of benefits of having your basement or crawl space professionally waterproofed, and we’d like to outline 5 of them here.
The following document outlines the recommendations for effective type A waterproofing.
Compiled by the PCA, it contains contributions from waterproofing experts throughout the industry, our own Ian MacLennan is acknowledged for his contribution towards the guide.
“This document has been produced to provide guidance on the design, adoption and use of Type-A waterproofing in below ground structures. Type-A protection is defined by BS8102/2022 (Code of practice for protection of below ground structures against water from the ground) as ‘barrier protection’. This is where a material is put in place that offers a barrier to the passage of water with the aim of keeping the target environment within a prescribed level of ‘dryness’. Although generally referred to when looking at designing basement waterproofing, Type-A systems can be utilised for a number of different applications…” ( Click here to read more: PCA Type A Guidance )
Here at MacLennan we are dedicated to our constant development and take a keen interest in the future of the waterproofing industry.
If you would like to know more, Ian MacLennan offers a free 1 hour CPD seminar on waterproofing, completely catered to your needs (details of which can be found here).
The polyurea pioneer Dudley Primeaux offers a personal take on the state of the technology and its future in a video interview with Durability + Design Magazine.
Basement waterproofing should be very straight forward. You stop the water getting into the basement but you make provision for defects by installing an internal water management system.
The reason you have to consider the potential for defects is it is not possible to expect 100% of staff to work 100% perfectly all day every day, so defects do occur. If a leak occurs after the basement is finished you need to be able to deal with it without causing damage to the internal finishes.
Basements were common in new construction up until the 1940’s, they then went out of fashion until about 10 years ago, however in Europe and America basement construction is still common place.
A basement is the most economical way to provide a single area space and may be the only way for some property owners to gain more space on a smaller site. Basements can achieve a significant improvement in development margins of as much as 15%. On multiple house sites, it is possible to build 2 houses where without a basement only one is feasible in terms of liveable, usable space within the property. In properties where it is not feasible or practical to build out or up, a new basement under an existing house is a very good option for most properties. An easier option is to build a basement in the back or front garden and to then re-lay the garden back over the top.