Greetings all,
For those of you who don’t think drylock is the answer to a wet basement, here are photos to show how my foundation wall was rebuilt. I had estimates from 9000 to 125000, the contractor I chose charge 28000 which is more than I wanted to spend but they did do an excellent job for a fair price. I hope this will help you understand the process. Many thanks to all of you.
The work was performed by Basement Masters waterproofing in Northern Virginia, the subbed out the masonry work to the gentleman who is photographed, Jose P.
Do you have pics of before any work was performed? what was happening to your basement. This would help to see symptoms of then what it would take to correct the cause.
The wall was bowed with a long horizontal crack and step cracks on either end. The engineer said I could have save it but the cost differential between the two was about 2000 so I decided to rebuild instead. I have pictures before, I’ll load it… It doesn’t do justice to the problem area, it was out about 2 inches.
Good enough (pic) for me to easily see the problem from Minnesota. I can feel the ‘bow’ from here!!
drylok loloolllll = crap, false claims etc. Good for you sir, glad things worked out well n you are happy with the work.
on jobs like that, rebuild etc imo best to thoroughly check contractor INSURANCE.
question… just wondering, did they backfill with gravel/stone all the way UP to within a few inches of grade level or at least within 1’ of grade? ( we see some stone, just wondering how high up they brought it)
No, I think they put enough gravel to protect the drain pipe but the rest is dirt that was there initially. I’m curious why you ask that question. Thanks.
For those of you in the greater Washington DC metropolitan area, I consulted with these contractors and have comments below (the engineer said $1000/foot is the going rate in this area):
AcuqaGuard - there have been a number of disparaging remarks on this venue about them, crooked salesmen, shotty work, etc, they came in about 75k, we showed them to the door after a few minutes. Thank god we skipped them.
World wide waterproofing - came in about 44k, very respectable but the price was a bit high.
Sam and Sons - he must have been a retired used car salesman, made contact with my wife, used FUD sales strategy (fear doubt and uncertainty), he came in at 125k, said he didn’t care that others’ price were lower, he was better quality. My wife showed him to the door, said no thanks on the spot, he was shocked.
Green Lady Masonry & Drainage Solutions - loved her, she wanted to do the steel option only for 2k less than they guy who rebuilt, I’d recommend her.
Basement masters waterproofing - they did the job, some details I’m not so happy with but overall, very respectable outfit.
There were many others whom I spoke with, unlicensed and licensed, some highly questionable, some didn’t want to do the work.
I kept on shopping until I got my price, it worked. Yay.
Mr V,
per the backfilling with peastone/gravel, its not really (the gravel) that ‘protects’ the drain tile, its much bigger purpose is gravel isn’t going to ‘consume’ lol, aka saturate as does expansive clay soil, silt, so the more gravel against a foundation wall, versus clay-silt, the less lateral-soil-pressure against the wall, water isn’t going to sit-in, the gravel and make the gravel SWELL, no, so it would be less pressure acting upon the wall on upcoming rains. I thought i saw ‘some’ sand, couldn’t really get a good gander of most of the soil that was dug out
did they put in the black perforated drain tile along FOOTING OR clay or pvc, just wondering
N i see they piled some soil near-along the open trench, apparently it didn’t cause any cave in at your place but doing that, could, was risky imo.
so you know, we’ve done quite a few BOWED IN wall jobs over the years and many of them we ‘saved’ the existing wall, i’d guess around 1/2 were a little or a lot worse than your wall (what i could see in photos)… the homeowners were either short on cash or just opted to get it, HAND dug out, waterproofed and then backfilled with all gravel, no leaks and only 2 that i am aware of had… a little more movement, not much, but did move, didn’t pop OPEN cracks… one cannot take ALL of the EXT pressure/weight off a wall i guess is what im trying to spit out.
One of the last walls SOMEONE else rebuilt, if i remember correctly they did the back wall and about 8–10 feet of side wall, i think the cost was $12,000…it DID re-leak and owner found us and had us redo the waterproofing, DC, NY etc are more expensive but still seems a bit high
Initially they thought I had a cracked footer in the corner but it was good as new.
they put in the black perforated drain tile along footer.
This wall is 26 feet long
manufacturer of black perforated drain tile says, “We don’t recommend using this drain pipe at depths greater than 4’ DEEP because the weight of the backfill could crush this drain tile”, pretty close to that is what they say… it appears depth to footing at your place is at least 5 1/2’ deep, maybe 6 ish…?
wow, that $12,000 rebuild i touched upon was at least 33’, not more than 37’, and 6’ deep, was done several years ago so of course costs keep rising lol but seems a bit high but i don’t live in DC, NY etc where shtt is higher
i hate to bring this up to you, maybe i should have shut my trap but here it goes, i have seen numerous rebuilds and about 1/2 of them were backfilled with SOME gravel and 1/2 with same excavated soil, i can’t remember which ones but approx 1/3 of these new walls either, bowed in again and/or some cracks occurred on ext of blocks, we all hope yours do NOT!
More like 7ish…seems to be working thus far.
