Landscaping and Waterproofing

While landscaping can help with waterproofing your wet basement several steps need to done to insure water is running away from the foundation and not into the basement. This house had the entire yard landscaped with rocks, plants, mulch and a multi-tiered rock wall.

Above the basement wall is a board called the sill plate. The sill plate is a horizontal wooden board attached to the concrete basement wall and supporting the above ground walls. This board should be at least 6"-8" above the finished grade.

This photo shows new landscaping that's been graded as high as the sill plate. Although you can't see it, the bottom of the sill plate is even with the bottom of the rock siding. The area in the center of the photo also has a small slope towards the home and rock wall.

During a rain storm, water would build up in the center area and enter the house between the sill plate and basement wall. While the house had a drain tile system none of this water was captured and ended up on the floor creating a very wet basement.

Some of the signs that the water is coming in from above ground include stains on the wall as in the case of this window. In this case heavy rains would spill over the window frame into the basement area. Once again a drain tile system would not work with this wet basement.

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