The Crackman frequently receives urgent phone calls to help get customers out of basement water jams. In this episode, Rich recounts a recent problem he rectified for a customer with a finished basement.
Narrator: It’s time once again for the “Crack Man Podcast” hosted by A1 Foundation Crack Repair. I’m Darren Kincaid here with the Crack Man himself, Rich Comeras. Rich has 30 years’ experience in the construction industry and over 25 years as the president and founder of A1 Foundation Crack Repair. This podcasts provides expert basement waterproofing, concrete repair, and preventative maintenance tips for homeowners and businesses. A1 Foundation’s valuable insight will help avert a disastrous flood within the basement, health problems associated with water infiltration, and protect your biggest investment….your home. The topic of today’s podcast: Help! Water is coming into my finished basement and it’s ruining everything. A case study in Holden, MA.
Narrator: So Rich, I imagine you always get urgent calls, it sounds like you helped another customer out of a jam on this one, and it’s a finished basement I understand? What can you tell us about it?
Rich: Yeah, this customer called with a finished basement and she called me the morning after a rainstorm that we had. She had water coming in. She told me it was a poured concrete foundation. So I said, take a look outside, in the area that seems to be coming in because it’s usually 6 inches of concrete or more above grade. I had to look for a crack over the phone. Well there was no crack that she could find, I told her it’s either coming in where the cement floor and the cement wall meet at that seam or it could be a tie rod that’s leaking.
What a tie rod is, it’s used in the construction phase. They pour the footing which is a rebar concrete that goes around the foundation, nice and wide, and then what they do is they bring these wood pieces in called forms. They put those on the footing they poured the concrete in. Well if you just poured concrete, they’d fall out. So, they put these little metal rods through, called tie rods (or snap ties, they’re called sometimes) then they snap them off.
Well we got there and knowing that there was no crack on the outside. She was aware that we would need to open up the wall. So we opened up the wall, and we could see clear as day that there was a metal rod that was rusted, and it was so rusted you could poke it through. These rods are about a quarter of an inch round, and you could see where the water was coming down through there. So, we were able to repair that with a closed cell polymer resin material that’s injected in with electric pumps. We solved her problem. But unless she allowed us to open up the wall, she would’ve never been able to repair it. If you look on the outside and dig down, you’re still not going to be able to tell it’s the tie rod that’s leaking. It could look fine on the outside. So, we solved her problem and stopped the water from coming in.
Narrator: Fascinating. Thanks for sharing another interesting case study, Rich.
If you have a basement water problem and think you need a professional, or, if you’d like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visit A1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call Rich at (866) 929-3171. Or you can email Rich at info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.