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: The Crackman helps customer with creative DIY creative fix for temporary wall leak.
Narrator: So Rich, you sent me a picture that made me choke, I’ve never seen anything like it before. I was sure this is just another
creative way a homeowner dealt with a basement wall leak. Now I’m finding out that you came up with this idea. How did that happen?
Rich: Yeah, I try to help customers as much as I can. I got a call from a fellow. It was about 8:30 at night and we’ve been getting
an awful lot of rain. I could sense the fright and frustration in his voice, and he was telling me that he has water coming in from his cement wall,
and it was squirting out. And I had a good idea of what it was. I told him, “send me a picture, I’ll look at it and I’ll call you back as soon as I
get it”. I got the picture and I called them back, and it confirmed what I thought it was.
And what it was, was a tie rod, which is a little metal rod that goes through the foundation. It’s used during the construction phase. They take 2 pieces of wood, and they get a separate if they would want to pour concrete on it for the wall. So they put these little metal rods in, and they bend them a little bit so that the wood holds them. They pour the concrete, they snap those little ties and they can tilt that forms the wood off. And those ties are metal, metal rusts. Well let’s suppose they’re flowing in from the outside and a good builder will do it from the inside too, to stop the air. Anyway, it was rust, it had rusted, and water was squirting out.
So, that was 8:30 at night, in fact it was a Sunday night and we’re getting more rain that night. I said, “why don’t you try this, do you have a string, or a rag, or something and try to push it into that hole, and it will act as a wick. And then get a bucket and put in the string or a rag into the bucket, and it will drip in there and then you will be all set and then we can come out and fix it”. Well he had a hard time trying to get that string or rag eventually. So what can I do? I said, “try some duct tape and lean some wood up against it”. He did and lo and behold, that water went right in the bucket just like it’s supposed to. And then we came back and we drilled next to that tie rod that was leaking, put our ports in and injected a closed-cell polymer resin, and sealed it. Gave him a warranty, and he was so grateful that we saved his basement, because he had just finished most of the basement, this was in the unfinished area. So, it’s nice to be able to help somebody out.
Narrator: Well Rich, we are in interestung times indeed with all these COVID-19 quarantine lockdown restrictions. We do what we must, right? At least we know that you’re able to eventually fix this problem correctly.
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.