In this episode, Adam shares this cautionary tale of the dangers of mishandling the materials used to waterproof basements. Hopefully this helps other overeager homeowners from making the same mistake.
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 Daddy himself, Adam Tracy. Adam and The Crack Man Rich have over 30 years’ experience in the construction industry. Rich as over two5 years as the president and founder of A1 Foundation Crack Repair. This podcast 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 dangers of DIY basement waterproofing jobs.
Narrator: So, Adam, you were telling me about a DIY project a homeowner did that went terribly wrong. I guess some jobs are best left to the professionals. Am I right?
Adam: I would say yes. Absolutely. We get all sorts of DIY homeowner attempts at both waterproofing and in general construction projects that come across our door. And most of these are issues of, hey, you simply used the wrong technique, maybe you used the wrong material, that's why it didn't work. Occasionally, we'll see issues where they may destabilize a wall.
It's more of a safety issue for the home. If you go on Instagram, TikTok, any social media, you'll see hundreds and thousands of videos of homeowner projects gone awry. Most often, it's to do with the materials that they use or the technique they use is just totally wrong. Most of them aren't a personal safety issue. But when it comes to waterproofing, there are so many things that are out there that aren't generally available to the public.
If you were to go into your big box hardware retailer and you were to say, ah, jeez. I need to waterproof my basement or my bulkhead or whatever it is, you're not sure that that will bring you. They’ll take you to an aisle and show you a couple of products that they use there. And those are just, you know, general type products, and they work okay for specific purposes that likely do not align with your intent.
The products that we use are, for very good reasons, only commercially available. You need a licenses to acquire them. It's not something that a general person in the public could just pick up and use. And again, this if for a host of very good reasons. It's not that we're trying to harbor and protect, uh, everything against everybody from being able to use it.
This particular case was a very cautionary tale of somebody who became an overnight expert on how to do some waterproofing and really paid the price for it. So, we had a customer of ours whose family members went online and went to YouTube and found a couple videos for people who were using a product or a series of products to waterproof a section of their foundation and immediately became the expert on how to do it by watching one four-minute video. And then they went somehow, somehow were able to procure this product that is not available to the public because use of the product requires specialized training.
They were somehow able to get it from somewhere. And they went ahead, and they used the products. And then later that night, they had a major medical issue because the product that is being used requires a significant amount of PPE (personal protective equipment) to protect the person using it. It has very high acidity and it's very caustic. It's extremely dangerous to the skin. And this person who used it, again, watched the video. The guy did it. He was more focused on the technique and not any of the safety measures for using this product. It actually burned ninety percent of the skin off of his hands from his wrist down, In some cases, all the way down to the bone. He's been in the ICU for several days now to basically treat his hands to a point where he can go home.
He'll have life-changing consequences of not really knowing the right product to use, knowing how to use the correct product, and becoming an overnight DIY expert. There's countless videos and explanatory on how to do this stuff, but the reality is that just because we watched a video, you read an article, it does not substitute all the training, all of the safety precautions, and years and years of experience on how to properly use both the tools and the materials in a safe way.
Just keep that in mind when you're hiring a contractor. Part of that agreement with them is that they know what they're doing and that they know how long they've been doing it. And they know they've been through the training and their technicians have been through training. It's not just a guy off the street that threw in a truck and said, hey, just slap this on there. Just make sure that you know, before you take any product on, the sheets that come with, you know, in the product that are pages and pages long about all the safety precautions, they're there for a reason. They're there to protect you as the user of the product and make sure that you're safe and you can go home to your family at the end of the day without any difference in your day.
Narrator: Wow. That is crazy. Well, thank you, Adam, for sharing this cautionary tale on the dangers of mishandling the materials used to waterproof basements. Hopefully, this helps other over eager homeowners from making the same mistake.
Narrator: If you have a basement water problem and think you need a crack repair professional near Massachusetts, or, if you’d like more information on foundation crack repair and basement waterproofing topics, please visit A1FoundationCrackRepair.com or call (866) 929-3171. Or you can email info@a1foundationcrackrepair.com. Thanks for listening and keep that basement dry.