Check out the video! These people had so much condensation on their basement wall they were using it to play Tic Tac Toe. That much water in the basement...is a bad thing. This can lead to mold, mold can lead to problems with your respiratory system, and it can get into your heating ducts. You want to stop condensation at all costs.
We got a call from a customer whose home is about a year old. They were getting mold on the baseboards of their finished basement. We recommended that they open up the wall a little bit at the bottom. That's what you see in the video.
We need to find out if this is condensation or if there is an actual leak in the foundation. It could be a crack in the foundation wall, we are going to open up the wall even more to find out. We'll run water with a garden hose on the outside of the home to see if it is a crack from higher up, if it is a leaking tie-rod, or if it is condensation.
If it is a crack we have an injection process that we use to repair it. We inject the crack so that the material that goes all the way to the outside or another material goes into the crack and a weave carbon fiber blanket goes over that. Similarly, with a tie-rod that may be leaking we can take care of it the same way.
We won't know if it is one of those two things until we run the water and open up the wall. Or, it could be what we call a "honeycomb" in the concrete. That's where they should vibrate the concrete when it is wet so to get the air pockets out of it. If they don't get the air pockets out of the concrete water can ooze out. We need to determine if it one of those issues above, or if it is condensation.
If it is honeycombs, we need to drill into those holes and inject the polymer resin in them. If it is condensation, what we need to do is get a good dehumidifier. I recommend a dehumidifier that can drain the water from the air to the outside. So, dehumidification can solve the problem or we repair whatever it is by injection or with the carbon fiber method.
Many people worry that with a problem like this they will need to rip out the drywall and do a lot of excavation outside the home to solve the problem. We will have to cut out the areas of the sheet rock where there is mold. If you catch it early, this can be minor, if you let the problem linger then you really get issues. There could be mold behind the wall, in the studs, and going into the floor joists above. My advice is to get it taken care of quickly so you don't have problems with the structure and your health.
If you have a basement water problem, contact A1 Foundation Crack Repair.