What Should I Do If I Have a Leaking Basement?

Basement Leak Repair

A leaking basement wall or a leaking basement in general can occur from a multitude of sources. Read on for Abarent’s tips on how to troubleshoot the problem, and how to get help.

In order to begin diagnosing the problem, have a look at where the water appears to be coming from in your leaking basement.  If the drywall is wet and damaged, have it cut out of the way and removed.  Exposing areas can sometimes be very helpful in determining the true origin of your basement water seepage issue.

Here are some typical causes:

Basement Plumbing leaking: Something as simple as a leaking drain line or water supply line can lead to a puddle on the floor.

Basement Window leaking: Wind blown rain can often push moisture in around the edges or track of a window.

Window well not draining: Debris may have plugged up a window well drain or there may be no drain existing.  Is there a water line on your window?

Basement foundation wall crack: This may be something that you don’t know the answer to. At Abarent, our trained eyes can often spot symptoms that indicate the presence of foundation cracks that are contributing to your leaky basement.  If drywall is wet however, cut it out of the way, so we can all see what is behind it.

Need for Weeping tile repair: Many houses built prior to 1958 do not have weeping tile and some houses that have existing weeping tile may have issues with that weeping tile.  Our experienced estimators will go through a checklist of symptoms to try and determine what your issue is and provide you with a solution.  It is much like being a detective of sorts.

Sump pump back up or Backwater valve problems: If your house has existing weeping tile, it needs to drain somewhere.  Your house would either have a sump pit connection or weeping tile may be connected to the sewer through a Backflow valve.  A pump failure or pipe blockage may lead to foundation seepage and a wet basement.

If you have a leaky basement, contact us asap. We respond very quickly.

To save parties time, there are several things you can do to help us diagnosis your foundation problem.

• Try and locate the origin of the basement leak
• Cut wet drywall out and remove soggy insulation
• Take note of when you notice the basement seepage issue and current weather (raining or not)
• Try and be informed on the age of your house and when it was built

Be sure to click on our handy check list to help you when interviewing contractors for your foundation repair project.  We look forward to helping you.

Consumer Beware – Consumer Tips for Hiring a Foundation Repair Contractor

Every year we are reminded on how important it is to practice “Due Diligence” when hiring a contractor.  I often hear the “horror” stories from clients who have made mistakes they regret.  Does any of this sound familiar?

• “I hired them because the company I was referred to by a neighbour was so busy they couldn’t see me right now.  These guys could see me today”
• “The guys I should have hired were booked for 4 weeks”
• “They were cheaper”

All too often during our busy season, I’ll see ads pop up online (Kijiji etc).  While a lot of reputable people use this medium, there are also all too many who use it’s anonymity  to their benefit and take advantage of consumers who want someone quick, cheap and easy.  Here are a couple of examples of what we were called in to fix after a client had hired someone else who was quicker and cheaper.  In both cases the client was now paying twice for the same repair.

Case # 1:  Client had called us originally and was told that due to call volume it would be 4 weeks before we could repair their basement.  They chose to look online for someone else.  They found someone on Kijiji who could come out right away.  This fellow performed his repair by gluing on a garbage bag, charged the client $1000 then left.  When the repair failed, the client tried getting ahold of the “contractor” with no luck.  After some checking, it turned out that the “contractor” they hired had no Business License, no insurance and no office.  He was just trying to pick up some quick cash.  They called us and we scheduled them for a proper repair.  Our foundation repairs are completely guaranteed in writing.

 

Case #2:  Once again the “quick, easy and cheap right now contractor” swooped in and charged a client for an incorrectly performed repair.  We were called in and provided a detailed written estimate, scheduled a proper repair and performed the work with success.

CHECK OUT YOUR CONTRACTOR:   There are many tools in our website to help you with this process.  Please feel free to use our consumer tips when comparing contractors for any service at your home.

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